Sleeping, or lack thereof

I hate being awake when the birds start to chirp. You know you are up way too early when the birds have the streets all to themselves.

New Zealand - A Wellington Birthday

13 February, 2009

Thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes on facebook and via email!! I can't tell you how much I miss everyone in the States (and everywhere) despite the wonderful adventures I'm having. And a big thank you for reading my blog. As I've said to a few of you, it's incredibly encouraging to know I have a few readers out there, and that my thoughts don't just float out and die in the Great Interwebspace.

I'm spending today lounging around in my bathrobe in a beautiful Wellington hotel room. A glitterly bouquet of roses and a huge English breakfast were delivered earlier today. I am spoiled rotten, indeed. Pictures to come.

Shameless Plug #2 - Te Anau Lodge

2 -5 February, 2009

I can't rave enough about this place. If you find yourself in New Zealand, I URGE you to stay a few nights here especially if you badly need a break from your claustrophobia-inducing campervan or if you're aching and sore from oh, I don't know, say a 4 day-3 night hike through the fjordlands (Milford Track).

This place is a beautiful new and old little lodge with just 8 rooms, 2 of the most hospitable and friendly people in NZ, and 1 very sweet black Labrador named Josie.

The property is a large stretch of well-tended lawn with a rustic herb garden of basil, some dehydrated mint, and rosemary roughly framing a brick patio. A rusty bicycle leans against the laundry room (open to guests). On a clear day, the lake and its surrounding mountains are shades of blue and perfectly visible. Amid this peaceful atmosphere, you'll find clean, bright, welcoming rooms and 2 hosts, Matt and Chloe, who invite you into the lodge like it's their home. It's the little things that you'll find irresistible and fantastic here, and you'll also probably find yourself booking a room for another two nights (like Stu and I). Stu and I were supposed to spend just one night here to relax and recover and then jump back on the road to our next destination. Instead, we shifted around the rest of our itinerary for South Island, and begged Matt to let us vagabonds stay for two more nights.

What was it exactly that made us stay? It was a combination of the following listed below in no particular order:

1) Pieces of freshly baked, homemade cakes in the beautiful library/lounge upstairs (the carrot cake was delicious) with as much coffee and tea as you like.

The Library/Lounge

Delicious Carrot Cake!

2) Delicious continental and cooked breakfasts in the Chapel room in the mornings.

Continental breakfast spread


Cooked Breakfast

3) The fact that the lodge was a converted convent from 1936. It was literally moved, piece by piece, from a place called Nightcaps in South Dunedin to the town of Te Anau. There are photos and a little album of the entire process and its careful restoration displayed in the library.

4) Matt standing at the door to the patio and calling for his dog Josie.

5) Usually I don't care about this stuff, but little touches like the brightly polished timber wood floors, rimu wood panels and framing, bathroom tiles with paua shell details, and vintage suitcases as doorstops convinced me that a lot of work and thought had been invested in this place.

Suitcase Doorstop

I'm sure I can go on and on, but I think you get the idea. Plus I should leave the rest to be discovered first-hand.

Thanks to our wonderful hosts Matt and Chloe at Te Anau Lodge.

Shameless Plug #1 - Kapiti Ice Cream

The best ice cream in the world is in New Zealand. Well, I don't have the research to back up that statement, but I'm working on it.

Kapiti Ice Cream, made by Kapiti Fine Foods Ltd., is incredibly delicious and creamy, deserving all the gold awards it received from the NZ Ice Cream Awards. (Sidenote: Kiwis seem to have awards for everything. We saw a tiny residential street awarded with "Best Street 2007" in Taupo.) The source of the name Kapiti is this beautiful region which was shrouded in low clouds and pouring rain when we drove through.

Bush Fires

I understand now why New Zealand has these signs posted along the state highways all across the nation. It's mostly a good thing, I think, that one can sense the heavy presence of the NZ government's hand. But that's wandering into another topic altogether.

For this entry, I just want to acknowledge all the brave firemen and rescue workers (some sent by NZ's prime minister) and the victims of the tragic bushfires in Australia. I hope all your friends and family down under are safe.

New Zealand - Skydiving

13 January, 2009

We were picked up at 9 AM to go skydiving by a "Kane" who had spiky brown hair with sandy blond highlights which was carefully swept over with plenty of hair gel like a contemporary interpretation of Mike Score from A Flock of Seagulls. He drove the van (which was empty of clients except us) fast and kept using his cell phone to call his base and make worrisome comments like "Do you know of a petrol station by here? I'm running out of petrol, yeah?" He was dressed like a skater but had an inordinate fondness for top 40 pop songs - we heard it all - Britney Spears, Pink, and Katy Perry to indiscernible, angry techno. I fell asleep only because I was so exhausted by jet lag.

Next thing I know, we were off the main motorway and on a windy, two-way road that undulated between rolling hills and valleys. It felt like he was driving really fast at this point, and the music was turned up louder since the engine was working harder, and suddenly, we arrived at a sign - NZ Skydive.

The place seemed like a hangout for skaters or truants. The office was a reinterpreted 2 bedroom home with shabby furnishings - worn, dirty carpeted hallway, a bare bathroom with no soap and a suspicious dark brown hand towel. Although there were anywhere from 10 to 15 guys milling about, nobody really spoke to us save the fat receptionist with pasty thick eyeliner and badly highlighted hair. She was relatively friendly until you started requesting things from her like a cup of water, then she became rather unhelpful and dismissive.

The guys all looked like aging skaters, others looked like they were barely out of high school, and a few looked like they were trying really hard to fit in. Four guys sat on an old velor couch watching videos of skydiving. Three or four more guys were gathered around a large Mac computer monitor watching more skydiving footage.

Finally, a guy named Jari took us aside with a curt "Let's get you in your jumpsuits" (in a thick Finnish accent) and didn't bother to introduce himself until Stu was in his jumpsuit and ready for the harness. I guess he thought it was best to introduce himself right before he got nice and intimate with us on the plane. Then we sat around in a stifling, air condition-less room until an older man came in with a colorful canopy (parachute) bag. The attention of the lounging guys turned, and several guys went over to talk to the man. This was Tony - the chief safety officer with over 12,000 jumps under his belt. He was my man. I was going tandem with this guy, the top dog. He was probably only in his late forties but his face was weathered like an old sailor's.

We were driven to the plane on the back of a truck like a hayride to our impending deaths. The driver/pilot looked like a 'Nam vet with a leathery, wrinkled face, aviator glasses (probably hiding his glass eye), and long greasy salt and pepper hair tucked under a trucker hat. He wore a long sleeved camouflage top and black denim cut-off shorts showcasing his hairy tanned legs.

Getting ready for the thrill of my life

We boarded (more like climbed and crawled) into the tiniest airplane I've ever seen. It was possibly the first plane ever manufactured, something straight out of Casablanca. We sat completely squished together so I didn't know whose limbs I was pressed against. Tony sat in the back, I sat facing him with our legs intertwined. Jari sat next to me with Stu between his legs, like lovers on a beach. My right leg lost feeling, not that it mattered before my fall to what seemed like sure death.

I expected the flight to be nauseating but it was quite pleasant to fly thousands of feet above the rolling hills and farms outside of Auckland - the same view we had flying into Auckland. Then I remembered that I wasn't just taking a ride, and my only way back was to jump out of that plane. We flew up to 12,000 feet which didn't really sound like too much in the brochure but definitely felt like a lot when saw farmhouses turning into tiny dots.

Stu jumped out first with Jari. There were several parts that were equally terrifying but each seemed to trump its predecessor. The first part was when Jari unlatched the flimsy plastic door which immediately snapped open and let the cold air blast in. It was misty and gray. We were in the middle of a cloud. The second most terrifying moment was when Stu hung off the side of the plane, his legs swinging beneath the side of the plane, and then suddenly disappeared into the gray mist. The third came when Tony started scooting us (I was attached to him by this point) towards the open door, effectively pushing me towards the edge. For a split second, I saw swirling mist and the absolute nothing beneath my feet. As instructed, I immediately tilted my head back (I didn't want to see what was or wasn't beneath me anyway) and held my arms in a cross against my chest like the sign language for "I love you". I didn't have time to be scared. I just remember my mind going blank and Tony saying, "Ready, darling"? I think I nodded and all I felt was his heaving stomach and barrel chest pressing against my back. He pushed off, and we spun through the frigid air in the most terrifying way. I forgot to breathe, but my mouth was open, and at one point in mid-tumble to earth, I felt my ears popping really, really painfully. The pressure made these sharp, painful snaps in my ears. I noticed that my mouth had become completely dry, and I finally shut it. At some point, Tony tapped my shoulder and I was free to release my arms and legs into a frog position. Apparently, we experienced about 45 seconds of free fall which was both an eternity and a flash. Tony pulled a cord, and I was violently jerked upright, the harness dug into my legs. While we were free falling, Tony had tapped my shoulder and pointed out the scenery which boggled my mind. How can you pay attention to some damn hills and cows when you're hurtling to the earth at god knows what speed? But, once we were floating with the parachute, I was able to close my mouth and look around. It was peaceful and extremely breathtaking. The only distractions I had were my popping ears, headache, and straps digging into my legs. But what a view!

It's a shame that we didn't opt for any pictures or video, but I'll be skydiving again in the near future, I'm sure. It's a highly recommended activity!

http://www.nzskydive.co.nz/

I Heart NY

Missing New York, family, and friends.

Creative Interpretations of NY

Thanks to my old roommate Helen for the link.

**Erratum: Please note a correction to the first draft of this entry. The above should be "Thanks to my old beloved roommate Helen for the link." Apologies to all offended parties (Helen). Love!

New Zealand - Day of Firsts cont'd

13 January, 2009 continued.

I left off with the promise of detailing more exciting firsts. I drove on the left side of the road for the first time in my life. I was extremely nervous, thinking that I might somehow forget what I was doing and wander into the other side of the road when making a turn. But you quickly get the hang of it. The trick is to focus on staying as close as possible to the right side since we American drivers have a tendency to wander to the left, dangerously approaching the curb or another car. Though everything feels pretty much the same, the one thing I really dislike is passing cars going the other direction on a State Highway. Despite its grand title, New Zealand's state highways are more like long, winding, 2-lane country roads. When you pass cars or trucks going the other way at a 100 kmph, it feels like you're going to scrape the right side against the other vehicle's but just narrowly miss! I do not like that feeling at all. I don't know what it is, but it seems different when the driver's seat is on the left side.

The next first experience was skydiving, but that definitely deserves its own entry.

New Zealand - Day of Firsts

13 January, 2009

We picked up the Spaceship on this day. What is the Spaceship you ask? Why, it's only our home for the next 5 weeks. It is the campervan of all campervans: bright orange, fully visible from any point in New Zealand, fully decked with a mini fridge that freezes your produce and a gas stove that dangerously swings out from the back of the passenger seat while preventing the passenger from comfortably leaning back on long rides (due to the large gas tank tucked behind the seat), and and and, a full mattress bed in the back where you can stretch out your legs (but don't sit up!) and watch a DVD at your leisure. We were blessed with the Eclipse on our first leg (one week in North Island).

The Eclipse (Yes, it's missing a hubcap.)

So this day was the day of many firsts for me. It was the first day I had ever driven on the left side of the road! Actually, back up. This day was the first day I've ever driven a van so old and yet so brightly painted. For your edification, the van's other awesome features include a moon roof and a sun roof for the illusion of added space, full sets of cutlery and cookware for two, as well as a little pantry for your food, a solar shower, and awnings for the side and the back. Anyone jealous yet? But the best feature has to be, and still is, its ability to attract the attention of other Spaceships on the road (thanks to its blindingly orange hue) so you can wave and smile in secret society solidarity that only truckers and bus drivers have had the privilege to do. Awesome.

More to come on my day of firsts, and please stay tuned for future entries such as "3 Day, 2 Night Kayak Trip in Abel Tasman National Park", "New Zealand Phrases for $400, Alex", "4 Day, 3 Night Great Walk on Milford Track", "Holy Crap Strap", and "Character Sketch - Lake Matheson"!

Pooped. Going to bed. Shong out.

New Zealand - Auckland Jan 12

My first incident in New Zealand (and trust me, not the last). It happened on the first day, well, first hour, of arrival, if you want to be technical. I ran the luggage cart into the damn curb, sending our bags flying everywhere. That curb came out of nowhere I tell you! Apologies to that Toyota.

On a separate note, those are the only pieces of luggage I have until April! And two of those bags aren't even mine. Not bad, huh?

At the Auckland Airport