Monday, August 29, 2005
NZ 5: Wellington - Taupo - Matamata - Waitomo Cave - Auckland - Sydney
Deeply sorry that I didn't touch the blog recently, so many people sick around me, made me a bit ill as well. Hopefully they all get well soon. OK, let me update the last piece of my journey...
The next morning in Wellington, our first town in the northern island, we went to the Te Papa Museum, an unusually nice museum according to Catherine we met in Punakaiki, just to see how special is it. Basically, it was like going back to your high school geography lesson, quite interesting though the interactive games they have there were rubbish. We met Danny again in the museum, what a coincident! In the conversation, we also awared that he's going to the similar places as we do, so we decided to meet up in Taupo. In other words, he has became our travel buddy as well. Hey hey hoo!
Taupo, a place where we stayed for 4 nights, which is the longest stay among all other towns in New Zealand. Once we arrived, it was night already, so we just made some stuff to eat and sleep. Next day was really slow, since some had hangover and some didn't sleep well, we still have managed to do something before dusk.
Headed to Craters Of the Moon, if you silly enough to think that we took a rocket up to the moon, no, it's just a volcanic thermal area in Taupo. It was quite amazing to see this landscape, pretty much like a Scotish battlefield after a war - smoke everywhere in a forest area. Two of the craters in this place was erupted (when steam passages below the surface, after heavy rain/earth movements) in September 2002, also the biggest eruption in a decade, you can see the pumice stones and a myriad of colors in the craters.
In the evening, I didn't stay up too late, coz we have a huge mission to do the next morning. What so inportant??? Well~ We planned to do SKYDIVING the next morning! Now that's something I can never say I'm ready no matter how much time I got... As some of you might have known that, falling from the sky is the worst nightmare I had in my childhood, possibly is my biggest fear. Cannot believe I did that, not even now.
We got up really early just to throw ourselves out of a plane, and we paid to do it, how stupid?? But hey, at least I did something that I am always fear of! I personally don't know what to expect to feel, so I wasn't like freak out until the moment I know I have to jump. I was silly enough to ask "dude, is this thing safe?", I almost shit my pants! What has to be done is done, I landed safely, 10 pointswith 5 points bonus for kicking one of the assistants into his face and got caught in the video, it was hilarious to watch it again and again... hell yeah!
The activity in the morning was too intense, so the crew decided to chill in one of the hot pools here, and me went back to meet up with Danny. I went to his hostel and watch his solo skydive plus 3 times bungy performance DVD, which was absolutely extremely. Told you! Dutch are mental! :p Headed back to my hostel and gathered up with Jon, HAnna and Lena, off we went to the Huka falls. No, instead of doing rafting there, we did a nice walk around the area.
Next day me, Lena, Joe and Danny have planned to do the Tangariro Crossing 6 in the morning, which is basically walking through the valley between the Mountain Ngaruhoe and Mountain Tangariro to the other end of Mt Tangariro. Here is the map for you to get the idea (We were walking the red route):
Crazy huh? yeah, we were all quite excited, but also a bit worry that the weather wasn't really stable. Hell, everyone says you can't say you've been to northern new zealand without doing the crossing, so I just gave it a go. The snow mountains were stunning, but when we arrived south crater (see map below), the weather began to get worse. When we attempted to climb up the red crater, a big snow storm almost blow me away, thank god Danny grabbed me back on time. We could hardly see anything around the mountain, everything were entirely white, I could barely see anyone who's five steps away from me. Hence, the guide said we need to cancel and return to the base. Boo...
I guess most ofthe people in the group were very disappointed, Lena was trying to convince the guide to keep going, but no hope. To be honest, I don't really give a shit anymore, coz it was freezing up there, have you even experience the cold that can cause you so many pain? It was like your face was constantly slapped violently, and all your fingers were stung by a thousand bees... I was indeed pretty happy that we headed back, though I have to say we are quite unlucky. But the thing is, traveller should learn to enjoy theirselves no matter how crap the situation is, so me and Danny were playing snowball battle and making snowman, it was good fun. After attacked by the vicious snow storm, everyone was exhausted... So we decided to get back to the thermal area and enjoy the hot pool in the rest of the evening.
The next day, we all packed up and headed to Rotorua, apparently it is a very beautiful place where you can see lots of amazing volcanic stuff as well as the Mauri village. We were fully expecting the best in the car, but didn't expect the worst once we arrived. God this place is so stink, it was like everyone in the town farts in every 10 seconds. The crew thinks it's not a bright idea to stay there any longer, so we planned to go up Tauranga, a poshy town in the bay of plenty. Stay for a nite and straight up to Matamata and visit the Hobbiton.
We didn't follow the Hobbiton tour, but just hung around the outside region. (coz me 50 bucks to see those 'Hobbiton' shithole!? no way!) It was so misty a minute ago (some people call this place 'silver mist'), but after a while, the mist began to clear up and the amazing scenery started to show! The landscape is really story tale like, crispy air, pure green lawn, lovely sheep, layered hills... I would say that is probably the most impressive scenery in the northern island.
However, the time was running out! We have to drive all the way to the Waitomo cave, coz we have determined to do the underwater tubing (known as rafting in the leaflet). Met up with Danny and off we go! Took like an hour just to put the swimming suit on, they are soooo tight and everyone could barely breath! We went in to the cave and sat our arse to the tube-ring then slided down to the waterfall. It was so dark, so it's a good idea to do some splashing and pushing. (coz you never know who did it... heehee) The glow worms were so kool, there're so many and it gets brighter if you shout in the cave. (I still don't understand why tho.)
After the chilling activity, we headed to our last destination - Auckland. This is a pretty kool city (tho I prefer Wellington!), where we can see people doing bungy at the sky tower. We went to the local market and shop around for the first day, they got some pretty kool stuff, but also very expensive... We waited fo Danny the next day and wandered the city, a spontaneous idea came out when me and Joe sawthe game center - "how about a dance machine challenge, Biatch?" I can see the fire in his eyes, so I accepted his challenge and filfull my wish to kick his arse! Man! I haven't play this shit like forever, but it was somehow really fun to play with these people! :)
After mucking around in the game arcade, we went to see Sin City! FINALLY!!!!!! God this is such a good film, I was so impressed by its visual effect and the comical perspective. Was a bit freak out by Kevin, especially knowing the fact that he is starred by Elijah Wood (aka. Froddo). But overall, really good cast for such a legendary comic film. Excellent intepretation. [5 out of 5] touchdown*
After the movie, we went out and get pissed, and the rest I just couldn't remember anymore. haha... peace out. Golly, I'm back to Sydney in a blink of eye! It's been great to see New Zealand and meet lots of kool people there. keep in touch fellows!! xo
P.S. Photos will be uploaded very soon! I just put up some new photos in album 5, including more additional picture in shane & Chrissy farewell, Blue mountains trip with Bill, and My Sydney Diary IV (pre-birthday celebration at Bank Thai Restaurant, museum station, crazy karaoke nite, cockatoes at botanic garden). Check it out! :)
[[audio: AmbulanceLTD - Ancedote]]
Deeply sorry that I didn't touch the blog recently, so many people sick around me, made me a bit ill as well. Hopefully they all get well soon. OK, let me update the last piece of my journey...
The next morning in Wellington, our first town in the northern island, we went to the Te Papa Museum, an unusually nice museum according to Catherine we met in Punakaiki, just to see how special is it. Basically, it was like going back to your high school geography lesson, quite interesting though the interactive games they have there were rubbish. We met Danny again in the museum, what a coincident! In the conversation, we also awared that he's going to the similar places as we do, so we decided to meet up in Taupo. In other words, he has became our travel buddy as well. Hey hey hoo!
Taupo, a place where we stayed for 4 nights, which is the longest stay among all other towns in New Zealand. Once we arrived, it was night already, so we just made some stuff to eat and sleep. Next day was really slow, since some had hangover and some didn't sleep well, we still have managed to do something before dusk.
Headed to Craters Of the Moon, if you silly enough to think that we took a rocket up to the moon, no, it's just a volcanic thermal area in Taupo. It was quite amazing to see this landscape, pretty much like a Scotish battlefield after a war - smoke everywhere in a forest area. Two of the craters in this place was erupted (when steam passages below the surface, after heavy rain/earth movements) in September 2002, also the biggest eruption in a decade, you can see the pumice stones and a myriad of colors in the craters.
In the evening, I didn't stay up too late, coz we have a huge mission to do the next morning. What so inportant??? Well~ We planned to do SKYDIVING the next morning! Now that's something I can never say I'm ready no matter how much time I got... As some of you might have known that, falling from the sky is the worst nightmare I had in my childhood, possibly is my biggest fear. Cannot believe I did that, not even now.
We got up really early just to throw ourselves out of a plane, and we paid to do it, how stupid?? But hey, at least I did something that I am always fear of! I personally don't know what to expect to feel, so I wasn't like freak out until the moment I know I have to jump. I was silly enough to ask "dude, is this thing safe?", I almost shit my pants! What has to be done is done, I landed safely, 10 pointswith 5 points bonus for kicking one of the assistants into his face and got caught in the video, it was hilarious to watch it again and again... hell yeah!
The activity in the morning was too intense, so the crew decided to chill in one of the hot pools here, and me went back to meet up with Danny. I went to his hostel and watch his solo skydive plus 3 times bungy performance DVD, which was absolutely extremely. Told you! Dutch are mental! :p Headed back to my hostel and gathered up with Jon, HAnna and Lena, off we went to the Huka falls. No, instead of doing rafting there, we did a nice walk around the area.
Next day me, Lena, Joe and Danny have planned to do the Tangariro Crossing 6 in the morning, which is basically walking through the valley between the Mountain Ngaruhoe and Mountain Tangariro to the other end of Mt Tangariro. Here is the map for you to get the idea (We were walking the red route):
Crazy huh? yeah, we were all quite excited, but also a bit worry that the weather wasn't really stable. Hell, everyone says you can't say you've been to northern new zealand without doing the crossing, so I just gave it a go. The snow mountains were stunning, but when we arrived south crater (see map below), the weather began to get worse. When we attempted to climb up the red crater, a big snow storm almost blow me away, thank god Danny grabbed me back on time. We could hardly see anything around the mountain, everything were entirely white, I could barely see anyone who's five steps away from me. Hence, the guide said we need to cancel and return to the base. Boo...
I guess most ofthe people in the group were very disappointed, Lena was trying to convince the guide to keep going, but no hope. To be honest, I don't really give a shit anymore, coz it was freezing up there, have you even experience the cold that can cause you so many pain? It was like your face was constantly slapped violently, and all your fingers were stung by a thousand bees... I was indeed pretty happy that we headed back, though I have to say we are quite unlucky. But the thing is, traveller should learn to enjoy theirselves no matter how crap the situation is, so me and Danny were playing snowball battle and making snowman, it was good fun. After attacked by the vicious snow storm, everyone was exhausted... So we decided to get back to the thermal area and enjoy the hot pool in the rest of the evening.
The next day, we all packed up and headed to Rotorua, apparently it is a very beautiful place where you can see lots of amazing volcanic stuff as well as the Mauri village. We were fully expecting the best in the car, but didn't expect the worst once we arrived. God this place is so stink, it was like everyone in the town farts in every 10 seconds. The crew thinks it's not a bright idea to stay there any longer, so we planned to go up Tauranga, a poshy town in the bay of plenty. Stay for a nite and straight up to Matamata and visit the Hobbiton.
We didn't follow the Hobbiton tour, but just hung around the outside region. (coz me 50 bucks to see those 'Hobbiton' shithole!? no way!) It was so misty a minute ago (some people call this place 'silver mist'), but after a while, the mist began to clear up and the amazing scenery started to show! The landscape is really story tale like, crispy air, pure green lawn, lovely sheep, layered hills... I would say that is probably the most impressive scenery in the northern island.
However, the time was running out! We have to drive all the way to the Waitomo cave, coz we have determined to do the underwater tubing (known as rafting in the leaflet). Met up with Danny and off we go! Took like an hour just to put the swimming suit on, they are soooo tight and everyone could barely breath! We went in to the cave and sat our arse to the tube-ring then slided down to the waterfall. It was so dark, so it's a good idea to do some splashing and pushing. (coz you never know who did it... heehee) The glow worms were so kool, there're so many and it gets brighter if you shout in the cave. (I still don't understand why tho.)
After the chilling activity, we headed to our last destination - Auckland. This is a pretty kool city (tho I prefer Wellington!), where we can see people doing bungy at the sky tower. We went to the local market and shop around for the first day, they got some pretty kool stuff, but also very expensive... We waited fo Danny the next day and wandered the city, a spontaneous idea came out when me and Joe sawthe game center - "how about a dance machine challenge, Biatch?" I can see the fire in his eyes, so I accepted his challenge and filfull my wish to kick his arse! Man! I haven't play this shit like forever, but it was somehow really fun to play with these people! :)
After mucking around in the game arcade, we went to see Sin City! FINALLY!!!!!! God this is such a good film, I was so impressed by its visual effect and the comical perspective. Was a bit freak out by Kevin, especially knowing the fact that he is starred by Elijah Wood (aka. Froddo). But overall, really good cast for such a legendary comic film. Excellent intepretation. [5 out of 5] touchdown*
After the movie, we went out and get pissed, and the rest I just couldn't remember anymore. haha... peace out. Golly, I'm back to Sydney in a blink of eye! It's been great to see New Zealand and meet lots of kool people there. keep in touch fellows!! xo
P.S. Photos will be uploaded very soon! I just put up some new photos in album 5, including more additional picture in shane & Chrissy farewell, Blue mountains trip with Bill, and My Sydney Diary IV (pre-birthday celebration at Bank Thai Restaurant, museum station, crazy karaoke nite, cockatoes at botanic garden). Check it out! :)
[[audio: AmbulanceLTD - Ancedote]]
Monday, August 22, 2005
Allnighter 22nd Aug Playlist
Back to the studio! got 9 people called up, which wasn't bad at all. :) Especially thanks for Jason and Chris, Tho I dunno them, but we are like having a relationship in the air! can you believe someone would called up and tell you they call you up 3 months ago and been looking forward to your next show? I was totally flattered. Anyway, I played all these tune tonite:
Pinch [Can]
We Listen Everday [The Go! Team]
2002 - A Hit Song [The Free Design]
Yeti [Caribou]
Tapedeck Sound [Hermitude]
Mishaps Happening [Quantic]
Manufactured [The Herd]
Ladies And Gentlemen [Hot Hot Heat]
The White Unicorn [Wolfmother]
Monday Monda Monday [Tegan & Sara]
Marceline [Barrage]
Any Hopeful Thoughts Arrive [Hood]
Dirty Harry [Gorillaz]
Oh My God [Kaiser Chiefs]
Sad And Lonely [Secret Machine]
Quarter To Three [Faker]
Up At The Lake [The Charlatans]
Munich [Editors]
Disco 1 [The Mess Hall]
Summertime [The Camel]
Resonate [Velure]
She Gets Up [TZU]
Come Around [Urthboy]
Soulreply [Stylophonic]
…Pass The Pepper On [Krill]
Wrong Baby [Colder]
Beetlebum [Blur]
Up in the Air [The Spark]
Wires [Athlete]
Primitive (The Way I Treat You) [Amblance LTD]
Opium Of The People [The Mint Chicks]
The Doldrums [Night Hour]
Hope There's Someone [Anthony & The Johnson]
Simple Livin' [Gym Class Heroes]
Dead Ringer [Ghost Style]
Front Frontier [RJD2 feat. Blueprint]
Feeling Good [Nina Simone]
Giraffe Girl [Coda]
Cold Wind [The Arcade Fire]
Building Bridges, Digging Caves [The Boat People]
If I Try [Intercooler]
Slow Down Gandhi [Sage Francis]
Hoe Cakes [MF Doom]
The Last Trumpet [Lyrics Born]
If We're In Love [Roisin Myrphy]
Lebanese Blonde [Thievery Corporation]
Not So Distant Drums [Enduser]
Apply Some Pressure [Maximo Park]
Timestops [Teenage Fanclub]
Sally Go Round The Roses [Holly Golightly]
Fire Below [Midnight Juggernaut]
Sukkafish [The Grates]
Comfort In Sound [Feeder]
Artificial Horizon [Pivot]
Sound Of Everthing [Alice Russell feat. Quantic]
Cheers Kids. xo
Back to the studio! got 9 people called up, which wasn't bad at all. :) Especially thanks for Jason and Chris, Tho I dunno them, but we are like having a relationship in the air! can you believe someone would called up and tell you they call you up 3 months ago and been looking forward to your next show? I was totally flattered. Anyway, I played all these tune tonite:
Pinch [Can]
We Listen Everday [The Go! Team]
2002 - A Hit Song [The Free Design]
Yeti [Caribou]
Tapedeck Sound [Hermitude]
Mishaps Happening [Quantic]
Manufactured [The Herd]
Ladies And Gentlemen [Hot Hot Heat]
The White Unicorn [Wolfmother]
Monday Monda Monday [Tegan & Sara]
Marceline [Barrage]
Any Hopeful Thoughts Arrive [Hood]
Dirty Harry [Gorillaz]
Oh My God [Kaiser Chiefs]
Sad And Lonely [Secret Machine]
Quarter To Three [Faker]
Up At The Lake [The Charlatans]
Munich [Editors]
Disco 1 [The Mess Hall]
Summertime [The Camel]
Resonate [Velure]
She Gets Up [TZU]
Come Around [Urthboy]
Soulreply [Stylophonic]
…Pass The Pepper On [Krill]
Wrong Baby [Colder]
Beetlebum [Blur]
Up in the Air [The Spark]
Wires [Athlete]
Primitive (The Way I Treat You) [Amblance LTD]
Opium Of The People [The Mint Chicks]
The Doldrums [Night Hour]
Hope There's Someone [Anthony & The Johnson]
Simple Livin' [Gym Class Heroes]
Dead Ringer [Ghost Style]
Front Frontier [RJD2 feat. Blueprint]
Feeling Good [Nina Simone]
Giraffe Girl [Coda]
Cold Wind [The Arcade Fire]
Building Bridges, Digging Caves [The Boat People]
If I Try [Intercooler]
Slow Down Gandhi [Sage Francis]
Hoe Cakes [MF Doom]
The Last Trumpet [Lyrics Born]
If We're In Love [Roisin Myrphy]
Lebanese Blonde [Thievery Corporation]
Not So Distant Drums [Enduser]
Apply Some Pressure [Maximo Park]
Timestops [Teenage Fanclub]
Sally Go Round The Roses [Holly Golightly]
Fire Below [Midnight Juggernaut]
Sukkafish [The Grates]
Comfort In Sound [Feeder]
Artificial Horizon [Pivot]
Sound Of Everthing [Alice Russell feat. Quantic]
Cheers Kids. xo
Monday, August 08, 2005
NZ 4: Queenstown - Wanaka - Franz Josef Glacier - Punakaiki - Nelson - Wellington
I know I know, I'm a lazy bastard. Well... Not really!! I just couldn't find a cheap internet place since Queenstown, in other words, I'm simply a tight arse! bite me.
Hee hee, anyway... let's continue my journey at Queenstown. This place is a pretty kool ski town for city people, but we decided to do the skiing in Wanaka for cheaper deal.
Next morning, a random English dude Tom ran into our dorm just wanna put his melting butter in our fridge, our curiosity kicked off the conversation. (quite easy to friends here, huh?) He was actually 80% looks like Hayden Christensen (aka. Anakin in Star War III), pretty boy... but very tough, he did 3 different bungy in a day, mental! I might do the bungy or skydive at Taupo in the Northern Island, apparently it's the cheapest place to do all this shit. But... we'll see~
Did a crazy walk up to the Bob's Peak, where people usually spend $15 to take a cable car up instead. It was breathtaking but definitely worth it by seeing the nice view around! There, you can see heaps people doing paragliding, yet we were more attracted to the luge up there. It was quite fast and we did a luge race too, absolutely fun! WEE~~~!!!! *happy*
Me, Lena and Joe did a special extra trip while Hanna and Jon rest in the dorm. We headed to the north of Queenstown, where the place's called Glenorchy. In this little town, a hidden area named Paradise was also another stunning filming spot of Lord Of The Rings, it was a very nice place, clear river, crispy air, beautiful mountains mixed of green and white. Took so many pictures, golly that was amazing!
Went to Wanaka after we had enough in Queens of the town, grabbed our ski equipments and headed all the way up to Cardrona. My skiing's virginity was gone with Hanna and Jon. Hanna taught me how to turn, slow down and stop, practised twice in the learner ground, then we go up to the top of the mountain!! *shit my pant!*
Funny thing is my first accident was happened on the cable chair, where I tried to ski off in the middle of the seat in between of Jon and Hanna. I was tripped back down to the seat while they both ski off the left and the right way. Chair began to rise and U-turning, I was panic since it would be very embarrassing to sit by myself all the way down to the mountain, while others were looking at you on the other side. Hence, I decided to jumped off, unfortunately fell, and that's how I hurt my thumb...
That, however, didn't devastate my gut! I enjoyed skiing so much and know nothing about the pain on my thumb! (probably it was really cold too...) I ski quite fast after a few times, then Hanna and Jon took me to the next level - a new path! (intermedia level) I was just trying to keep up with them, went down to this track called Highway 89', I ski down with the speed of 100K! Didn't know how to stop so I just sat down on the snow, dragged my arse 5km far until it finally stopped! A stranger just came up with an amazing eyes saying "God you are spectecular! I've never see someone skiing that fast!" After I told him that's my first time skiing, he was even shocker as I'm still alive. Good fun. :)
Drove up to the Franz Josef Glacier the next day and found a very nice cottage, we couldn't do much since it was almost the evening. So I started to chat with some strangers, met this interesting Danish guy David, great fun talking with him. We even watch Lord of the Rings together, Joe started to put a character's name on us. Here's the game for you, we have 6 people (Me, Hanna, Lena, Joe, Jon, David) with 1 character each (Gandoff, Sam, Froddo, Sauro, Arwen, Tree Beard), you do the match! :p
Went up to see the Glacier in the next morning, didn't climb it since it was very expensive and we were really tight in the budget. Instead of that, we did a lunch break at the bottom of the Glacier, was very nice! Plus, Joe went for a chilling shower under the waterfall. He's bloody crazy fool! but I respect that.
After that, up we went to Punakaiki where they have the Pancake Rocks and the Blowhole. On our way, we stopped at Okarito to see the amazing Lagoon and tried to search the wild kiwi. (no luck tho...) Pancake Rocks was so facinating, I was totally blown away! We stayed at Te Nikau Retreat for one night, there I met this lovely English lady Catherine and we talked until god knows when. Have a good trip at the south Catherine!
Last night we arrived Nelson, which was a shithole, I got a terrible (sydney) homesick there, so there's nothing to talk about. (worse than Christchurch) We took a ferry to the Northern Island this afternoon and here we are in Wellington - The capital of New Zealand!
Love Wellington a lot! Especially the groovy building in the city center~ Except one thing... Can you believe that they haven't got Sin City yet??? God, we need to wait til' 11 Aug! So probably will see it in Auckland, no one allows to spill the story in front of me! Or I'll Kill Ye! We went to see The Island there at night, it was a pretty kool film. Start with detective genre and shifted to purely actions. I quite like it tho it made me feel a bit numb in the end. (3.8 out of 5)
Staying in the Wildlife Backpacker now, It's a very funky building (Zebra painting on the wall!). Free internet!! Woo hoo!! I spent like 5 hours for this message! Including chating with people online, and the kool Dutch guy Dan who sat next to me. I really enjoy the great chat with him about the trip, art, junky email, kool sites, stupid jokes and other shit. Nice to meet you man!
Ok, I guess this is long enough for you to read it in a week. Keep your email and message coming!! Damn! It's already one half here! I better head to sleep now! ciao!! xo
P.S. Thanks for answering my question Em! miss ya girlfriend!
P.P.S. Happy Birthday Pauly! Tell me how's your party~~!
P.P.P.S. I MISS FBi!!!!!!!!!! Arghhh~~~!
[[audio: Do You Know The Way To San Jose? - Dionne Warwick]]
I know I know, I'm a lazy bastard. Well... Not really!! I just couldn't find a cheap internet place since Queenstown, in other words, I'm simply a tight arse! bite me.
Hee hee, anyway... let's continue my journey at Queenstown. This place is a pretty kool ski town for city people, but we decided to do the skiing in Wanaka for cheaper deal.
Next morning, a random English dude Tom ran into our dorm just wanna put his melting butter in our fridge, our curiosity kicked off the conversation. (quite easy to friends here, huh?) He was actually 80% looks like Hayden Christensen (aka. Anakin in Star War III), pretty boy... but very tough, he did 3 different bungy in a day, mental! I might do the bungy or skydive at Taupo in the Northern Island, apparently it's the cheapest place to do all this shit. But... we'll see~
Did a crazy walk up to the Bob's Peak, where people usually spend $15 to take a cable car up instead. It was breathtaking but definitely worth it by seeing the nice view around! There, you can see heaps people doing paragliding, yet we were more attracted to the luge up there. It was quite fast and we did a luge race too, absolutely fun! WEE~~~!!!! *happy*
Me, Lena and Joe did a special extra trip while Hanna and Jon rest in the dorm. We headed to the north of Queenstown, where the place's called Glenorchy. In this little town, a hidden area named Paradise was also another stunning filming spot of Lord Of The Rings, it was a very nice place, clear river, crispy air, beautiful mountains mixed of green and white. Took so many pictures, golly that was amazing!
Went to Wanaka after we had enough in Queens of the town, grabbed our ski equipments and headed all the way up to Cardrona. My skiing's virginity was gone with Hanna and Jon. Hanna taught me how to turn, slow down and stop, practised twice in the learner ground, then we go up to the top of the mountain!! *shit my pant!*
Funny thing is my first accident was happened on the cable chair, where I tried to ski off in the middle of the seat in between of Jon and Hanna. I was tripped back down to the seat while they both ski off the left and the right way. Chair began to rise and U-turning, I was panic since it would be very embarrassing to sit by myself all the way down to the mountain, while others were looking at you on the other side. Hence, I decided to jumped off, unfortunately fell, and that's how I hurt my thumb...
That, however, didn't devastate my gut! I enjoyed skiing so much and know nothing about the pain on my thumb! (probably it was really cold too...) I ski quite fast after a few times, then Hanna and Jon took me to the next level - a new path! (intermedia level) I was just trying to keep up with them, went down to this track called Highway 89', I ski down with the speed of 100K! Didn't know how to stop so I just sat down on the snow, dragged my arse 5km far until it finally stopped! A stranger just came up with an amazing eyes saying "God you are spectecular! I've never see someone skiing that fast!" After I told him that's my first time skiing, he was even shocker as I'm still alive. Good fun. :)
Drove up to the Franz Josef Glacier the next day and found a very nice cottage, we couldn't do much since it was almost the evening. So I started to chat with some strangers, met this interesting Danish guy David, great fun talking with him. We even watch Lord of the Rings together, Joe started to put a character's name on us. Here's the game for you, we have 6 people (Me, Hanna, Lena, Joe, Jon, David) with 1 character each (Gandoff, Sam, Froddo, Sauro, Arwen, Tree Beard), you do the match! :p
Went up to see the Glacier in the next morning, didn't climb it since it was very expensive and we were really tight in the budget. Instead of that, we did a lunch break at the bottom of the Glacier, was very nice! Plus, Joe went for a chilling shower under the waterfall. He's bloody crazy fool! but I respect that.
After that, up we went to Punakaiki where they have the Pancake Rocks and the Blowhole. On our way, we stopped at Okarito to see the amazing Lagoon and tried to search the wild kiwi. (no luck tho...) Pancake Rocks was so facinating, I was totally blown away! We stayed at Te Nikau Retreat for one night, there I met this lovely English lady Catherine and we talked until god knows when. Have a good trip at the south Catherine!
Last night we arrived Nelson, which was a shithole, I got a terrible (sydney) homesick there, so there's nothing to talk about. (worse than Christchurch) We took a ferry to the Northern Island this afternoon and here we are in Wellington - The capital of New Zealand!
Love Wellington a lot! Especially the groovy building in the city center~ Except one thing... Can you believe that they haven't got Sin City yet??? God, we need to wait til' 11 Aug! So probably will see it in Auckland, no one allows to spill the story in front of me! Or I'll Kill Ye! We went to see The Island there at night, it was a pretty kool film. Start with detective genre and shifted to purely actions. I quite like it tho it made me feel a bit numb in the end. (3.8 out of 5)
Staying in the Wildlife Backpacker now, It's a very funky building (Zebra painting on the wall!). Free internet!! Woo hoo!! I spent like 5 hours for this message! Including chating with people online, and the kool Dutch guy Dan who sat next to me. I really enjoy the great chat with him about the trip, art, junky email, kool sites, stupid jokes and other shit. Nice to meet you man!
Ok, I guess this is long enough for you to read it in a week. Keep your email and message coming!! Damn! It's already one half here! I better head to sleep now! ciao!! xo
P.S. Thanks for answering my question Em! miss ya girlfriend!
P.P.S. Happy Birthday Pauly! Tell me how's your party~~!
P.P.P.S. I MISS FBi!!!!!!!!!! Arghhh~~~!
[[audio: Do You Know The Way To San Jose? - Dionne Warwick]]
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
NZ 3: Dunedin - Te Anau - Midford Sound - Queenstown
Hi everyone, guess what? It's August now, so.... STOP CALLING ME TRASHBAG! Ok, let's see I've got here:
We went to see the Mysterious Skin in the Dunedin Internation Film Festival, since I'm gonna miss the preview screening organised by FBi. Anyway it was quite an interesting film, if you like to see how people deal with traumatized childhood. The guy who do Neil, swear to god I have seen him somewhere before! Tell me if you recognize him! His acting is alright in this film tho, I think it's a bit over-acting. (4 out of 5)
We had a good breakfast in Metro again, and started to drive off the town. Before Te Anau, we went to checked out the Baldwin Street, which is claimed as the most steepest street in the world. It was very kool and very steep, went up to the top to see the whole Dunedin and drove back down... God I almost died in heart attack there!
Off we go, headed to Te Anau and picked up Joe, a new travel company in the group! He is a friend of Hanna and decided to meet us in NZ. A very funny dude knows how to entertain, tho sometimes I a bit smart arse, I actually quite enjoy travelling with him.
Te Anau is a very quiet version of Queenstown, a huge lake in the front and the snow mountains behind. We just stayed there for one night tho, since the accomodation is quite expensive there. We were also told that they have better Lord of the Ring view in Milford Sound, so there's where we wanna go the next morning.
Heading to Milford Sound is definitely a trek, icey road around the mountain wasn't comfortable at all. But it's very kool to go through the old skool tunnel to this remote town, it's kinda like a coal mining tunnel. Joe just screamed 'Let's go out of the Batcave, Robin!!!' pretty much you know how's it like by what he said, yeah? :)
Milford Sound is a rainforest region, so it rains almost 365days - cold and wet, but Golly, the view there was absolutely amazing! The road we walk up to the mountain is green color, the whole nature is so well-protected. Trees are so beautiful there, oriental shape with moss hanging down from the branches as if they all wear clothes. Stunning! It's like the dreamland that you would only think it does exist when you were a kid.
We drove back to Queenstown and head for a cheap place to live. Now we are staying in this place called Pinewood Lodge, pretty kool place but a bit dirty.
I'm running out of time, so will tell you what happened after we hit the Queenstown. :) ciao!
[[audio: Blur - Tender]]
Hi everyone, guess what? It's August now, so.... STOP CALLING ME TRASHBAG! Ok, let's see I've got here:
We went to see the Mysterious Skin in the Dunedin Internation Film Festival, since I'm gonna miss the preview screening organised by FBi. Anyway it was quite an interesting film, if you like to see how people deal with traumatized childhood. The guy who do Neil, swear to god I have seen him somewhere before! Tell me if you recognize him! His acting is alright in this film tho, I think it's a bit over-acting. (4 out of 5)
We had a good breakfast in Metro again, and started to drive off the town. Before Te Anau, we went to checked out the Baldwin Street, which is claimed as the most steepest street in the world. It was very kool and very steep, went up to the top to see the whole Dunedin and drove back down... God I almost died in heart attack there!
Off we go, headed to Te Anau and picked up Joe, a new travel company in the group! He is a friend of Hanna and decided to meet us in NZ. A very funny dude knows how to entertain, tho sometimes I a bit smart arse, I actually quite enjoy travelling with him.
Te Anau is a very quiet version of Queenstown, a huge lake in the front and the snow mountains behind. We just stayed there for one night tho, since the accomodation is quite expensive there. We were also told that they have better Lord of the Ring view in Milford Sound, so there's where we wanna go the next morning.
Heading to Milford Sound is definitely a trek, icey road around the mountain wasn't comfortable at all. But it's very kool to go through the old skool tunnel to this remote town, it's kinda like a coal mining tunnel. Joe just screamed 'Let's go out of the Batcave, Robin!!!' pretty much you know how's it like by what he said, yeah? :)
Milford Sound is a rainforest region, so it rains almost 365days - cold and wet, but Golly, the view there was absolutely amazing! The road we walk up to the mountain is green color, the whole nature is so well-protected. Trees are so beautiful there, oriental shape with moss hanging down from the branches as if they all wear clothes. Stunning! It's like the dreamland that you would only think it does exist when you were a kid.
We drove back to Queenstown and head for a cheap place to live. Now we are staying in this place called Pinewood Lodge, pretty kool place but a bit dirty.
I'm running out of time, so will tell you what happened after we hit the Queenstown. :) ciao!
[[audio: Blur - Tender]]
