New Zealand EXTREME!

Extreme-ness

Well, we came, we saw, we conquered Queenstown... definitely one of our favorite places so far. The streets and air is filled with energy and excitement in QT; extreme this and the most outrages that; it's definitely an adrenalin junkies mecca. The town itself reminds us of a smaller Aspen, tucked away amongst beautiful mountains, a bit commercialized but in a way that still allows the city to maintain it's charm. The town is surrounded by exciting but expensive activities: Jet boating, river sledging, skydiving, bungi jumping, mountain biking, luging, etc. All expensive activities, unless you happen to "know people"... and thankfully for us, we started to know people after a few days.

 After a few days we befriended the weekend manager at our hostel, Mike. Mike is what Engenders call "bonkers" and Americans would call batshit crazy! He's a throwback to the Cockney Englander, at least in discussion cause neither Krissy nor I could understand a word out of his mouth most of the time. Mike, fully embracing the culture of the city knew that to mountain bike here, one most risk life and limb every 4th rotation of the pedal. Finding out first hand, Queenstown mountain biking is more along the lines of, "Let's push our bikes up that 2,500ft mountain, get to the top we're Mike will then proceed to give you the most incomprehensible (but possibly most important) 30 second lesson on how not to die while traveling 40 mph on numerous cliff edges and overhangs, hop on our bikes and find out actually what "putting yourself at risk" is considered to our health insurance companies. Oh, and all of this while riding a bike Mike borrowed from his buddy that tends to make a weird screeching sound when I tap the brakes and has a for sale sign for $150 hanging off the back of my seat. I later found out that the bike I was riding was originally bought new for roughly $1,500, meaning, either something on the bike is terribly wrong or this guy is seriously hard pressed for beer money.

Mike and Me

Me trying to navigate a turn

I've done the skydiving, the various cliff jumps, the cave repelling, the driving in Northwest D.C. at 1 in the morning... but nothing compares to the rush of flying down a mountain side under a "controlled" skid , with a braking system opposite to the kind we're used to in the states. What a rush! I was ecstatic when I jumped though the open window of our private room back at the hostel while Krissy was peacefully doing the PX90Yoga session... she definitely needed to do laundry after that... but to be honest, so did I.

We went back a few more times and each time I got a bit more comfortable and daring resulting in a gamut of scary, but painless crashes (did I mention the braking system is opposite to ours?). All of my crashes resulted with me going over the handlebars while trying to slow down but all luckily involving nothing but dirt and my helmet (mountain biking rule #1: Always try to land on your helmet). Mike however rides a bit faster thus launching him into various obstacles in which one would otherwise tend to avoid (i.e. trees, cliff faces, 40 feet of nothing but air and possible a flying bird). On one of these falls, Mike tried to break his fall with his arm and ended up with a series of deep gashes and a encore of purple bruises shortly after. It was pretty nasty, so nasty and bloody that Mike felt the need to ask for a band-aid when he got back to the hostel. I told him that at least one of those cuts required stitches (which he agreed), but thought super glue would work out just fine... after a quick demonstration on the application procedure of antiseptic wipes, he cleaned the cuts, put a few squirts of crazy glue in and viola... good as new (if new meant a more beat up version of the old Mike).


Mike had the camera ready knowing full well I had no chance of making it down the plank!

All in all, Mike was a great friend to have in Queenstown, someone who couldn't sit still and liked to have company on all of his exploits.

Since we were staying at the hostel for two weeks and helping out around the place, we got pretty close to the owners, Marla and Tim. Marla, a Wisconsin native fell in love with Tim in Aspen, six months later they were in QT with a business plan called the Magic Bus (a hugely successful touring bus company out here in New Zealand). Needless to say they had a bit of money and built an AMAZING house overlooking some of the ski fields and naturally, Tim took up golfing. Tim is the 4th member at a club called The Hills, a very prestigious course that the New Zealand open is hosted at. As most of you know, I ONLY play the best courses (i.e. West Potomac, Rock Creek and the Sterling Par 3) so when Tim asked if Krissy and I wanted to come out for a round one Sunday, we graciously accepted the invite. We were concerned that the $500 round may not fit exactly into our budgets; however, to our delight Tim explained that he could get us on free, which coincidentally, fit into our budget perfectly! With Tim, being a straight up and down hitter and me an unintentional left and right hitter, we where able to see ALL of the course, and boy did it live up to the hype. Every hole Tim would say, "alright guys, get the camera out, this next hole is the money shot"... after 18 holes, lets' just say we needed to unload our camera card when we got back. What a unexpected and great treat to find yourself on a course like that.
 

I'm sure the next words out of my mouth were "Hey, did anyone see where that went?". What can I say, I was distracted by my beautiful caddie!


We wrapped up our time in Queenstown with some great memories and great friends. Now it was on to the famous Fox and Frans Joseph Glaciers.

As we ventured North we passed through some charming towns and beautiful Mt. Aspiring National Park. In my opinion, Mt. Aspiring NP is the most beautiful place in New Zealand. Places like Milford and Doubtful Sound, The Pancake Rocks and Able Tasman get all the hype and their faces on the postcards, but I think there is something to be said about less populated locations. Whether your at these attractions with a group or by yourself, you tend to always have a sense of being part of the "tourist heard". Don't get me wrong, these places are beautiful and should not be missed (except Milford Sound, but that's another story), but personally, I prefer a spot off the beaten track; a spot where you pick and choose what to see not a spot you're shown... Places like Mt. Aspiring (to come full circle). Waterfalls drop from everywhere, trees are in abundance and cars are few and far between - my kind of spot.

Moving North with one more (German) passenger who discussed mostly his allegiance to Star Wars thus could not comment on Star Trek (yes, we often pick up hitchhikers - only the nice ones though i.e. chainsaw-less). Random fact: Did you know there are about 40 books after the last movie came out? And in case your wondering, many galaxies far far away, people on Earth are still giant Star Wars nerds.

Anywho...

After unloading our German, we took a quick look at Fox glacier, we decided to take on the larger and more picturesque Frans Joseph, or as many (me) refer to it as Franny Joe. We began the short trek to the glacier and got almost up to it where we then noticed the roped off section around it stating "Do Not Pass, you will get crushed by falling ice or rocks". I'm sure we would have taken the sign seriously (I promise) if we hadn't seen hordes of tourists heading up under the supervision of their one glacier guide. As we sat there waiting for the guides to get up the hill leading to the glacier, we discussed in frustration how the Kiwi's could even turn a large block of ice into a $100 tourist trap. While we conjured up our devious plot to touch the giant, dirty ice cube another guideless couple joined us. After telling the guide that we were going up whether we had to break out our pick axes or not, he confirmed that they could not stop us but recommended us not to get on the ice since we don't have crampons (Ice shoes). The four of us moved up the ice, happy that we avoided yet another tourist trap while the $100'less suckers that paid we right in front of us clearly frustrated. With our new comrades, forged in saveyness, we walked back down discussing our agendas for the rest of our time in NZ. Coincidentally, they matched up almost perfectly, henceforth the Fellowship of the Iceberg was created... uhh, sorry, too much Lord of the Rings I guess.

Krissy, Me and Franny Joe

That night we got to know Luke and Jade over a few beers, a box of wine and a rousing game of shoulders which was halted every time it got to Luke on number 5; you have to point Luke! And all you friends that know the game of shoulders and follow the worldwide rankings, I'm officially now an international champ, I expect a parade upon return. We spent the next 3 days with the couple from Brighton exploring some of the West Coast and partaking in some of the local cultures such as panning for gold (no luck), knife making and trying whitebait. We also got to spend even more time after we (I) locked our key in the car and had to spend half the day trying to get in before we succumbed to hiring a mechanic to break in, not before Luke almost had our entire door panel off though... I guess he was still looking for that elusive gold.



Jade, Luke, Krissy and me panning for gold 

In closing (finally), one of my favorite things about traveling long term is the people you meet. It's funny how a simple conversation while sitting on a rock staring at and ice cube can lead to 3 days of great fun and camaraderie. Or while just standing near your tent wondering what to do next can lead to meeting companions that you will spend Halloween and an 8 hour car ride together to and from Milford Sound. Traveling in the fashion we have chosen allows us to meet lots of people but rarely allows us to truly bond and make true friends. Those that we have had the fortune to get to know such as Luke and Jade and Chandler and Jay (our favorite Canadians), reminders us of the things we miss most back home; our amazing friends and family.

Our favorite Canadians, Chandler and Jay (Chandler forgot to dress up)


In summary: Life is great.

Coming soon: A summary of the Pancake Rocks, Able Tasman Trekking and find out how long Krissy can go without showering... all on the next episode of Idiots Abroad... uh, I mean Our Tra-vows.

Finally, for all you that keep up with the big man upstairs, please keep the 30 coal miners from Greymouth that perished in an explosion the day we were there in your thoughts and prayers.
Future travels: Arrive in Australia Dec. 5th, Arrive in Malaysia Dec. 20th.

Random Pics:

This Kea (New Zealand parrot) was one second away from flying off with our keys.

...New Zealand sunset