An Ode to PY

This is PY.  He was a great motorized work donkey for us.  Today we sadly give the keys over to Bob, Andis uncle who will nurture his kind spirit for the coming years.  He saw us through rain, sun snow, hills and camping.  He helped us navigated past 280 flattened Opossums and we put on approximately 10000 KM, over half of which was done in the last month.  Thank you PY, you've done well for us.  Did I mention it was a 4x4?  

To PY, he's Red and he's awesome!!!!   

Top 5's Good and Bad

Five months it has been since we fled Tonga and touched down in New Zealand. Five months of exploration, work, head scratching and discovery. There have been great days and horrible days but everyone of the have taught us about ourselves, each other and a small place called New Zealand. First impressions of this country unfold and you find yourself thinking “you know, it's not that different from home.” Dig a little deeper, spend a bit of time and ask a few questions and you will discover that just under that surface is a quirky nation where the picture just doesn't “hang straight.”

Today as we head out of the country and cross the ditch to Australia we would like to leave you with our Top 5's.

Number 5 Dislike: Getting A Job.

We found getting a job in NZ as being very tough. We tried very hard to find work, any work and yet we got shut down for the dumbest of reasons. Personally when there is a sign in your window for a sales associate at a cafe and I come in requesting the position it should not be a two week waiting period to work out the details. In my humble opinion that two week waiting period could be condensed into a conversation. I have never in my life encountered a place that will make you fill out a 7 page application form in order to work at the equivalent to a Home Depot. I've never had to hand over a C.V. (resume) to get a job as a laborer. It was ridiculous to no end, and that is why it ranks in at #5.

Number 5 Like: The People

The attitudes and values of the NZ nation are very similar to those of Canadians. Even though life is very different here in many ways the personalities of those you meet will always be genuine. I've been enough places to know when your getting ripped off or unwelcome, here is not the case. People want to know about you, your trip and your thoughts about their homeland. It was very easy to blow 20 minutes at a shop chatting with the owner about anything. Canadians and Kiwis get on very well.

Sub-like (#5a): The question.

It was great to hear the Kiwis dance around the question of “Where are you from?”. They knew outright that we were from N. America but there is no way they were going to offend you by calling us Americans. It made me laugh every time I heard somebody tip toe around the question. I just told them, it's ok to call us Americans, we'll just correct you when you do.

Number 4 Dislike: No Central Heating.

This nation does not know the meaning of insulation, let alone central heating. Either your house has a fire place, a coal stove or you put on a jumper (sweater). We were only here in the spring/summer/early autumn and I can assure you it gets cold enough to warrant heating your house. In winter it will snow and it will stay on the ground, especially in the South Island, yet the answer to a being warm is put on a jumper or grab and extra blanket. Some nights there are so many blankets on the bed I can barely breath due to the weight on top of me, and it's not even winter!!!

Number 4 Like: Moko the Dolphin.

I have already spoke to this in a previous post. You can read it here to refresh your memory. Just an outright great experience.

Number 3 Dislike: No Campfires.

I have a serious issue with this one, it always rains in NZ. For a country that receives up to 7m of rainfall in a year (that equates to an inch a day) you cannot have a campfire in most campgrounds. The campfires we did have were breaking the rules, but we had to eat some nights and that was our only source for cooking. I didn't feel bad when it took us 1.5hrs to get the fire going because the wood was bloody soaked! No campfires is a sucky rule!

Number 3 Like: “She'll Be Right” Mentality.

Rules are just a guideline here, which is why we made most of our campfires. The attitude of “She'll be right” extends down to every last bit of life here. Because the law states that you cannot sue, you CAN do all the extreme sports, you can drive a mini-chopper on the streets and you don't have to wear safety glasses at work. This is a foreign concept to us from Canada. Our laws state that somebody has to be liable for an accident, here you bugger yourself up being an idiot, thats you fault. It is like being in the 1950's were you just don't need to worry about things as much, besides ”She'll be right”.

Number 2 Dislike: The Roads.

The highways here are very un-Canadian. They are narrow, windy and most of all windy. Nobody ever tells you how long it will take to get somewhere, that question will always be answered in km. A 50 km drive can take anywhere from 25 minutes to 75 minutes. People tailgate like its going out of style and drunk driving is a very big issue . There are one lane bridges (that sometime share the right of way with train tracks) where you need to yield to oncoming traffic. Some places you need to ford rivers and the worst thing of all is the twisty nature. Simply put, we get car sick. We can only drive short distances because the roads are back and forth and back again. It gets old in a hurry, me = unimpressed.

Number 2 Like: Barefeet

You don't need to wear shoes, ever. I have hiked, shopped, drove, dined, gone to movies, gone to the pub, worked and banked barefoot. It rules.

Number 1 Dislike: Sandflies.

These little bastards are the spawn of Lucifer himself. They land on you and bite you and you will only realize this until the very last second. By this time it is too late, you will spend the next three days with a welt that itches worse than chickenpox. I hate them with a passion. Click for a view, kinda gross.

Number 1 Like: Mullets!

The hairstyle that rose and died amoungst the populace in the 80's never really died went away here. It is very acceptable to wear the mullet and I have never seen it so embraced. We took these guerrilla style shots for your and our enjoyment.

That's our view of this green island nation, next stop....AUSTRALIA, where there is hopefully some surf!!!

And then there were three...

I bought a gnome. He will now be travelling with us for the duration of the trip, unless he meets some unfortunate fate, like theft or breakage etc. The gnome is from the Tui beer company, if figured it was a decent deal, I'll explain. When we went to the Tui brewery back on Day one of our south island road trip the gnomes were 40 bucks. Andi said no. Two days ago I could buy a 12 pack of beer and get a gnome, so I did. Here we are, travelling our last few days in NZ with a naked gnome.

Now I will turn to you the five faithful readers of 2 beachtowels, we need help... and you get to play (insert trumpets) NAME THAT GNOME!! Here is all the info you need to get you started... he is 8 inches tall, naked and produced by the TUI beer company. Go to it kids, just leave your suggestions in the comment box below. I look forward to your help.

Furthermore, beacuse I was bored silly last night I have hidden the gnome in the photos below. If you looking to waste a few minutes here is your chance. Double click the photos below to see and enlarged version to search for the Tui gnome.

This is the toughest one...

On a different note we are in the Coromandel Pennisula now, central east coast of the north island. The roads are curvey and we are getting sick of driving, but we did see 13 more flattened Opossums today. Anyway we went to Hot Water Beach today. In the crazy geothermal wonderland that is NZ, you can dig a hole on this beach at low tide and toast your buns in the natural hot springs. I don't know who discovers this shit, but it is very cool free activity!! Check us out:

Note, some people still think that wearing berry smugglers are fashionably ok...

Day 22 - Taranaki

Here we are on the surf cost highway, the furthest westerly point on the North Island and it is flat as flat can be. There are more breaks here than some Hawaiian Islands and there isn't a bloody wave to be found! My timing in this country has been impeccable for missing every bit of surf. I have not been in the water for 6 weeks. Needless to say I am looking forward to scoring some waves in the near future, if not here then in Aussie where at least the water is warm.

The area of Taranaki is western north island, it is well known for Mt. Egmont, the massive volcano that looks like a perfect cone. Looks pretty sweet now but some day it will blow and smash the smithereans out of NZ. My advice don't be anywhere near this thing when it goes, if you are then you best be kissing your crispy ass good-bye, think Pompeii. Nonetheless it looks pretty cool, eh?



Next topic of discussion... why have the comments died away? We do our best to keep you guys updated with whats going on here almost daily, yet we have no clue of what is happening at home. Babies being born, parties and snowstorms we get maybe a glint of that on facebook but we are feeling kinda left out. Are ya feeling something here on the page?

Let us know.

You read the page?

Let us know.

Got a suggestion?

Let us know!

We've been feeling a bit isolated from home lately so help us out say hi. I don't know, maybe you don't like us because we have long hair...

Enjoy your snow Calgary.

Days 18-20 Northeast Coast, South Island

The final leg of the south island, the high speed run from Dunedin to Picton, the east coast, generally flat, good Canadian style highways and not much to see in comparison to the sister coast 400km to the west. Our drive took us first to the Moreki Boulders. They are old rocks, they are spherical in shape and everybody goes to see them, we did too and this is our proof.



The city of Christchurch is nice, there were lots of gardens and it was sunny. Hard not to like a place when it is generally pleasant. That is the extent of our report on the city, we camped and it was pleasant. Andi bought a sheep skin to keep her warm for when we stay in the tent and during the day she puts it on the car seat. I am letting her drive more now so I can sit on the sheep in the passenger seat.

We left Christchurch after 2 nights and hit the road for Kaikora. Whales, seals and sea lions is what puts Kaikora on the tourist map. This is your town for seeing the large mammals of the water. We figured we could see the whales in Canada, we already swam with Moko the dolphin and the seals and sea lions were free, take a guess where we went. The seals and sea lions were tired and boring so we scoured the shoreline for shells instead. A couple of finds to smuggle home and we went back to town to hang out. Nothing much going on other than a shitty cover band bastardizing most of Bob Marleys and Led Zepplins catalog. We went to the hostel, watched Almost Famous and went to bed. Kaikora does have some very sweet murals on the side of their buildings, here are a few.






Today was a long day, up and on the road to Picton to catch the 2:25 ferry back to the North Island. A “moderate crossing” saw us listing in our seats for 3 hours. It wasn't to bad for me, I watched “Slumdog Millionaire” and Andi hung out on deck... mostly in the horizontal position.

That's it for the South Island, 20 days of discovery and we definitely feel richer for having done it. For those of you sitting at your desk reading this looking for a place to vacation next year, take this recommendation, South Island New Zealand. An island with more nature than a David Suzuki documentary, more sheep than people and enough beaches to keep you exploring till the revival of the American economy will keep you engaged at every turn of the head. This place is truly stunning but it must be experienced first hand, ask anyone who has been here and I promise you a similar response.

I will leave you with this, I like the South Island of NZ.

Days 15-17 - Southcoast

After leaving Milford Sound we headed south, way south to the bottom in fact. Bluff, the very bottom of NZ, the end of the road. You cannot go any further south in this country unless you get on a ferry and head to Stewart Island, the forgotten third island of New Zealand. This post does not take into account that there is yet another island to explore so I will now state that Andi and Dion have been to the very top and very bottom of New Zealand, excluding Stewart Island. Here is our picture at the signpost in Bluff.



We spent a night in Invercargill prior to our adventure to Bluff. It cold and the people seemed weird, isolated weird. I cannot put my finger on it but it was just a strange feeling that life different here.

One real benefit was our encounter with the Russian sausage maker at the local market. This man hooked us up with 5 campfire ready garlic smokies. I can honestly say that it was the best Russian influenced New Zealand garlic sausage I have had on the south island. Perhaps they tasted so good because it took us so bloody long to start a campfire that night. All of the wood was soaking wet after the week of harsh downpours that we have been talking about. But man prevails (mostly woman prevailed) and we (she) made fire and we ate like kings (savages).

After a good rest we awoke to the splendor of the Caitlins, a seldom traveled region in the southeast of the south island. Off to the beach we went to explore, there we were greeted with sea lions and a baby fur seal. Super cool to once again be that close to big marine mammals without some loser conservation officer telling us it is not a good idea to “get that close”. We're tourist dammit and this is NZ, where suggestions about how to interact with wildlife are just guidelines, just like any other “rule” in this country.



A few MORE waterfalls and we're back in civilization, Dunedin. A very small big city that holds onto its students as the lifeline for activity past 6PM. We stayed two nights to shave, shower and shop. Lots of old English style buildings and Gothic churches to be seen. We saw the worlds steepest street while we were here. Just think of the steepest street you have ever been on, this one was steeper. We never took photos, try Google image search if you are keen. St. Paddy's day was last night, we went for drinks with two English blokes and a Austrian girl. I couldn't understand the one guy if my life depended on it, apparently we speak the same language. I was a bit dismayed that the green beer tradition is not adhered too down here. That said they had no problem charging 7.50 NZD a pint, at least somethings are static across boarders.

I awoke this morning to a text message from my mother at 6:45AM. Without fail when a night of heavy boozing happens my mother somehow manages to sense that I should be woken early to punish me for my sins. I love her deeply but just what the hell is the importance and more so the meaning of a message that reads “Puddle Ducks”. I love hearing from you Betty but please observe the no text messages to Dion before 1PM Alberta time rule. My sleeping patterns would be greatly appreciative.

Next town Christchurch.

Day 13 and 14 - Milford Sound

Today we set forth for Milford Sound. Famous in NZ for its stunning natural beauty, famous to the rest of the world because of that scene in Lord of the Rings, much like a lot of places here. For us we bought an overnight cruise on the sound, aboard the Wanderer. Just me and Andi, a couple of Americans and 39 Danish girls aged 18-26. Milford is known for its rain, but we lucked out and caught 2 stunning days of sunshine. That said it was mighty cold on the water that night. We sailed out onto the glacially carved fjord just as all the other day cruises were headed in. Up and down the length of the fjord we stood on deck watching the towering cliffs go by. Ranging from 700m to 1600m they rose straight from the sea, due to the grandeur it was difficult to judge the size, they looked half as tall.

About 5pm the boat anchored and we went swimming. It was bloody cold, Andi made me do it, you are only there once... So we jumped from the top deck of the boat into the deep deep water much to the amazement of ourselves and the other tourist on the boat.

20 minutes later we were skimming across the water top aboard the nature cruise that did its best to teach about the geology and history of the sound. We had an hour of education then it was dinner whilst we cruised to our mooring point for the night. The stars came out and shone all night as we gently bobbed in the water.

I awoke at 6:45 am to some idiot chick blow drying her hair, god know for what reason, I men we were only a good 1 hour cruise and 2.5hr drive from the nearest town. Some peoples kids, eh. I went up on deck to find us cruising once again, this time out to the gentle rollers of the Tasmen Sea. It was challenging to stay still on deck as the boat listed, Andi felt it in her tummy, she didn't like it.

By 9 am we headed back to the dock to disembark, our overnight on Milford was well worth it. If you ever find yourself close to Fjordland NZ do not miss it. You don't know what you are missing.

Day 10-12 Wanaka and Queenstown

Holy christ it was cold. In fact one day that we were in Queenstown it was the coldest day on record for that day in March. It was maybe 6 Celsius, which sounds like a real delight for those at home, but when you have been hanging in the sun for a few months and you don't have the clothes for it you get cold in a hurry, flip flops don't cut it.
Rant
I would like to further rant about the state of heating in this country or lack there of. Dear NZ citizens: you live in the Southern Alps, it gets cold here, in fact you have a winter season, you should look into installing central heating it is 2009 Seriously there is no central heating here...but you can buy coal to heat your house. Yes coal, that stuff they used to use in the late 1800's to warm a log cabin in the forest. Well in super modern NZ it is still kosher to burn that black lump to warm yourself, besides if your cold you can always just put on a jumper... These people are still smack in the middle of the '50s sometimes.

Anyway we saw snow - on the ground - we were unimpressed and kept driving. The only cool thing about it was the super high possum count, upwards of 60 over three days!!!

We arrived in Queenstown and immediately went to the luge carts, high above the town. We walked up the steep ass hill to save ourselves 44 bucks, we worth it. I will again reiterate how much fun the luge carts are. Anybody from C.O.P. reading this in Calgary here is a business plan:

Step 1: install luge carts.
Step 2: make lots of money.

The next day was "Do something stupid day". We could have chosen from several activities included but not limited to:

• Bungy jumping from a bridge
• Bungy jumping from a ledge
• Bungy jumping from a pod over a canyon - I've done this previously - it gets a check mark from me
• Jet boating
  
• White water rafting
• Canyoning
• Skydiving
• Paragliding
• Mountain Biking
• Aerobatic stunt plane piloting
• River surfing
• River sledging
• Canyon swing
• Paintball
• Sailing
• Rally car driving
• etc.

We chose (I chose) river surfing on the Kawarau River, home of this famous shot. The basic idea, put on a wet suit and fins, jump in the river on a boogie board and bash your way through the rapids. Upwards of class 4's on a 6 point scale. The fun was being had by me, Andi was scared shitless. She got a very personal guided trip town the river because the guide held onto her for most of the way down. She was spooked but now she knows what to expect for the next time "Do something stupid day" comes around.

Next stop Milford Sound.

Day 9'er - The West Coast

The west coast is wet. Soaking wet in fact. As discussed in the last update this area of the world get pounded by rain. And we found that out first hand. I rained in showers all day long, mostly only 15 minutes between hour long showers. Still it is the wet coast so one should expect it, that didn't stop us from checking out the sites.

We set out in the morning to Franz Joseph Glacier. It was pissing rain and a 1.5 hr walk into the glacier, common sense kick in and we left. The highlight of that town was a toss up, the pleasantly surprising public loo (think talking Japanese style can) or the bird flying into Andi's hair and the resulting freak out.

The next place on the road to discovery was the Fox Glacier. A 20 minute walk from the car park and it had stopped raining - for a minute. We made a mad dash for a good viewing spot, but not surprisingly we got smashed by heaven water again. We both got soaked, but in my opinion it was worth it to see a very unique glacier. It is unique due to the surrounding geography. The rain forest lines the confines of the glacial valley. The result, ice and rain forest directly beside each other, the only other place on earth similar is in Argentina. I nerded and Andi got educated, in know she didn't care and she probably hasn't forgiving me yet. Here we are soaked.




From here it was another dash along the rugged coastline and then inland and up over the Haast Pass to the calming plateaus near Wanaka and Queenstown. The Haast Pass was basically waterfall alley. Big amounts of water seemed to be streaming off the hills at every glance. We stopped at several of them because we could. Please consult the slide show for names and photos. The valley narrowed, the road got steeper and the gorge beside us deepened. It all made for a super sweet drive through the mountains. Certainly our favorite so far. The last waterfall we stopped at was called Fantail falls. When we got to the riverbank we were greeted with hundreds of rock cairns. Truly a delight after seeing so many waterfalls (you do tend to get bored with them). We made a couple to help keep the bank tallies up.


Twenty minutes later we were up on the high plateau under a shinning sun, which was very welcome in our opinion. A quick drive past lake Wanaka put us into the town of Wanaka for the night.
A quick window shop and beer and we were off to bed, which is exactly where we wanted to be after a long day of being soaked!

Day 7 and 8 - West Coast of South Island

The west coast is wet, it has rained and rained and then it rained some more. I guess that is what is going to happen in a area of the the planet that gets upwards of 7 metres of rain a year. Yes you read that correctly, the west coast of New Zealand is one of the wettest places on earth and it can get upwards of 7m of rain a year!!! When you try and camp it sucks. I have conceded that we are just plain idiots sometimes.

So after we left the Abel Tasmen National Park we headed through the Buller gorge to Westport, NZ. Nothing crazy to report from this day, just a lot of rain forest, a cool gorge and we even stopped to look at a earthquake epicenter. It wasn't what it was cracked up to be. We camped in Westport on the coast and got clobbered by a rainstorm, or at least we thought we got clobbered, then the locals said oh yah, "that was a sprinkle last night". I was obviously misinformed.

The next morning we awoke, broke down camp and got the hell out of that freezing ass town and headed south down the coastal highway and got on a train. This train led up us a valley, through some super dense rain forest, that was soaking up every bit of the heaven water coming down, to a wall of limestone. We were in the heart of karst topography.

You see we had signed up for some cave rafting. This was our day to explore the spooky world of underground exploration. Up the hill we walked and into a giant cave, filled with stalactites and stalagmites, wetas, 40 year old foot prints and god knows what the hell else. For 2.5 hours we got informed about the formations and history of the area. We were even told that we were quite safe in the caves if an earthquake hit, I called bullshit when I saw the giant ass rocks on the cave floor that were obviously from the ceiling. Nonetheless we trudge on in wet suits carrying tire tubes.

Why the tubes and wet suits? They were for the underground rafting that was done on the second part of the tour. You see because this is NZ, you can't just show people a cave, you must present a extreme element to it, in this case toobin'. So that is what we did, we jumped on a tube and got in a river that flowed gently through the caves. At this point we shut out our headlamps, leaned back and scoped out the glowworms lining the roof of the tunnels. Like a starry night to look up these worms marked the ceiling leading to our exit. These worms are not comparable to anything else, just a really neat thing to see.

Upon exit of the caves, it was raining, and it stayed that way all the way to Hokitika, were we got a room for the night.

Day 6 - Abel Tasmen National Park

Abel Tasmen Park, nestled amongst the fjords of the northern region of the south island is one of New Zealand's “must dos”. A National Park created to preserve the rich coastline, marine animals, lush vegetation and stunning golden sand beaches.
There were many options in which to explore the park, most were not right for us. We could have sailed, but it was to expensive. We could have kayaked, but we figured we were not physically up for it. We could have hiked and camped, but decided against it because we would need a real pack mule in order to cart all of our stuff in. We pondered and came to the conclusion that a water taxi would be best.
So we climbed aboard the 10 seater boat and headed north into the park for a hour long skim across the glassy water to our starting point, Bark Bay. Once we arrived at Bark Bay we got dropped off and told to keep left. There we were 20km deep into the Abel Tasmen National Park, our car was 21Km away and our only way to get back was walking, so off we went.

Over hills, through the forest and across the sandy beaches we walked. For hours on end the incredibly well kept trail weaved in front of us, sea to the left, mainland to the right, forest above and below us, the trail kept revealing itself. There were times that even you could take off your shoes and tramp on.




Around every major headland was a golden sandy beach waiting for us. With the sun high in the sky keeping everything nice and warm the sea displayed the perfect invitation for a cool down. A quick swim, an apple and we were off due south, looking for PY.


Half way through the day we came upon Torrent Bay, named for notoriously quick tidal changes due to the flat sandy bottom. The tide was out, so we got to take the 1.5 hr short cut across the sand and clam beds that see the light of day just twice with the cyclical shifts of the tide. We cast our shoes aside and embarked. A couple of wrong stream crossings saw us with no choice but to go over a couple of small rocks, which lead me to the March edition of the
Fall Down Report
With shoes in one hand and feet covered in a thin layer of saturated silt a medium sized wall of rock acted as a barrier to our destination. I climbed over first and noted the flat pancake-esk rock on the over side. I further noted the precarious 32° angle of the rock sloping away from the medium sized barrier, which we had to cross. At this very moment I turned and gave this information to Andi and offered a hand over the impediment. The offer was refused and I carried on without much thought.

“EEEKK” Andi shouted, with a tone that stated Oh, shit I'm falling.

I turned my head to view the events unfolding only to have to duck away from the tethered shoes that were hurtling towards my head end over end...right shoe, left shoe, right shoe, left shoe. Simultaneously the shoes and Andi hit the ground, further proving Newtons first law that all objects fall at the same speed.

The incident investigation report revealed that the silty layer on Andi's feet coupled with the silty slimy layer on the rocks resulted in double the slip and double the trouble for her balance.


The rest of the day was much the same as the first, vista after vistas with sandy beaches in between. In the end it took us 7 hours to complete the 20Km but it was well worth it, that said we were happy to see the car.





Day 6 was a great day under the sun, in the forest on the beach and most importantly not behind a desk. Andi said it best, this is way better than working.

Day 5 - Nelson, NZ

It's raining again today so we didn't really have much to do. Tomorrow we head into the Abel Tasman National Park for some tramping. Look for that update in a couple of days.

What I can tell you is that we have book our ticket home!

Our itinerary:

We leave NZ on March 30 and fly to Sydney, Aus. It is our ambition to "do the east coast."

April 24th we fly onto Hong Kong for a weekend in Asia. We hope to catch up with a friend from Calgary.

April 27th we move onto Italy for 2 weeks. Plans as of right now have us meeting up with Khaison in Sicily and perhaps a venture north to Venice.

May 12th we fly to Amsterdam from Rome. It is our hope to maybe even check out Paris. After one week in northwestern Europe, we will board a plane to head back to Toronto. We have plans to visit Collingwood with Andreas folks (Peter and Karen) for a few days. We do not have a ticket to calgary booked just yet, but we will be back soon after our trip to Collingwood. At that point we will be broke and ready for hire. Reality will have to set in sometime, at least it will be summer!

See you soon!!!


GIF animations generator gifup.com

Day 4 - South Island, Nelson

Day 4 - Sunny moving to rain

An early wake up, pack up and drive to the Interislander ferry saw us move south from one land mass to another. We have made the Cook Strait crossing to the south island with our motorized donkey PY. It is now time to explore, first destination, Nelson, NZ.

Km marker 346 from Napier - saw us land on the South Island in Picton, NZ. A couple of wrong turns took us a good 40Km further from our destination, but that is 90% of the fun. We have no photos of the crossings because our battery in the camera died. Too bad for you, buy a ticket and see it for yourself.

Km marker 408 from Napier - Havelock,NZ.
Green Mussel capital of the world, I would be so stoked if I liked Mussels, but I don't so all I could do was buy batteries and take a photo of the big pot of mussels on the roof. Check it out.

KM marker 427 from Napier - Pelorous River, NZ.
This looked like a real nice natural river from the road, so we stopped and had a look. Upon further inspection, we concluded that it was a real nice river.



KM marker 486 from Napier - Nelson, NZ.
It's a hippy town.

Note - we played the Dead Opossum game today. I guessed 4, Andi guess 3. The final tally was 15,nobody wins.

Day 3 - Wellington

Our second day in Wellington saw us cruising the cities highlights once again. Today our focus was one the Botanical Gardens located on the northern edge of the CBD on the terrace. The gardens wind themselves down the hill toward the city and are quite beautiful. It was a great way to enjoy the nice sunny afternoon, which is rare in this city. The only thing that would make these gardens better is if they rented out the luge carts like they have in Rotorua. Seriously it is the perfect setup, then the gardens would kick ass!!!

Later on we decided to take in a bit of the culture and checked out a local theater production of Tom Stoppards “Rock and Roll.” We both found it boring, long and unengaging. I am glad that we scored student rates. I reckon I am done with the theater for a while.

Here is a slide show of our time in Wellington.

Day 1


Day 2

Wellington, what a breath of fresh air. A very welcome influx of youth and culture after leaving the stuffy old conservative views of Napier. It is very nice to be back in a city. A place that is vibrant, busy and whole world different to what we have become accustom too. Today was spent doing pretty much what we do upon arrival in any world city, we walked around, cruised the shops and people watched. I can assure you that the hopeless kids of today are wrapped up in the “latest” fashion trends of 1987, bad hair and skinny pants are everywhere.

Wellington also boasts the Beehive, which houses the NZ government:

The bucket fountain on Cuba St. Both loathed and loved by the locals due to its abundance of splashing water making everything within 20 feet of it soaked on a windy day, which is pretty much everyday.

And Te Papa museum.

This is the national museum of NZ. Housing the richest collection of art, artifacts, and interactive exhibits in the country this museum is a great place to kill an afternoon and it is completely free (New York City museums should take note). Heaps of information on Maori Culture and the odd roving exhibit, like the Monet collection that was passing through. We did not get many photos as it was frowned upon, but we did manage to sneak these ones in.
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On a side note, we had a slight panic when I lost our bag check ticket half way through the museum. Good thing nobody got our bag before we did, it only had our wallets, passports and our laptop!!! Whoops!

Tomorrow we plan on checking out the cable car, botanical gardens and maybe even take in a little theater but we'll decide that in the morning because we are going out drinking tonight.

Road Trip- Day 1

After 3 months in Napier it was time to leave, mostly because we were bored with the town, we both loathed the idiot tourists and we didn't want to work anymore. So we quit our jobs, again, and held a departure party at the house. 26 A Seapoint was rocking (mildly humming) with the friends we met in town.

As the sun set we said our goodbyes packed our stuff and went to bed. This morning we arose, completed our list (which was longer than the Treaty of Waitangi) and got the hell outta town...ROADTRIP!!!

The next month will see us and our motorized donkey (PY) hitting the open roads of the South Island. We have until March 30th to see the rest of NZ.

First destination: Wellington at the southern tip of the North Island.

Day 1 – Sunny 27 C

Left Napier heading south at approximately 11:00 A.M. After 10 minutes on the road we stopped in Hastings (KM Marker 18) for lunch.

Next stop was Woodville, NZ at (KM Marker 127). It was here that Andi relinquished the car keys to me after giving me a number of frights with her behind the wheel. She still does not stay completely in the middle of the lane, scaring the hell outta me when the car is to too far left. My current confidence rating in her driving is 85%⇩. Woodville is also the proverbial fork in the road. From here it is either west to Palmerston North or south to Mangatainoka. The choice was easy.

(KM Marker 166) Mangatainoka, NZ home of the Tui Brewery. We stopped in for memorabilia and a tour. I bought stickers and Andi got drunk. We met some other Canadians as well, but they were quickly on there way when I started to remind them of how poorly the Wancouver Cannots were doing. The tower pictured below was built way back by some idiots. As the story goes they built the thing and then removed all seven floors of scaffolding failing to remember to install a lift or stairs. So there they stood looking up at there masterpiece with no way to access anything above level 2. I applauded their smarts.







(KM Marker 194) Eketahuna, NZ. Giant roadside Kiwi pictured below.



It was here that my dreams of being an Olympic sprinter were killed. I set the camera self-timer for 10 seconds and had approximately 50 m to run. I obviously didn't make it. Somewhere in Jamaica, Usain Bolt is laughing hysterically.

(KM Marker 200) Mt. Bruce, NZ.

We then started playing the Opossum game. In oder to play the game you set a destination, then choose the number of dead Opossums you anticipate seeing between your starting point and end destination. A dead Opossum must be at least 68% complete in order to count as a dead Opossum. All contestants must agree that the dead Opossum is a legal one in order to count. I choose 4 and Andi choose 6. The final count was 5 between Mt. Bruce and Wellington, our final stop for the day at KM Marker 345. Nobody wins the dead Opossum game today.