Learning to surf a couch

I'm trying to do some new and interesting things on this trip, and for Melbourne I decided to incorporate couch surfing! Couchsurfing is set up to meet locals and save some cash while traveling. You can search the area that you're heading to and see if there is someone living there who has a couch for you to crash on, or wouldn't mind meeting up to show you around. You can also meet over "surfers" traveling in the area and who wouldn't mind a travel buddy. Since this sounds incredibly sketchy/dangerous for anyone with a normal sense of safety I decided to check out someone another traveler I knew had met before. You could say a mutual friend in a traveler's sense?

This led to me Evan. Evan is an engineer working here on contract who lives in the most convenient, and at the same time complicated, apartment ever. It's located in the city center, so all I have to do is walk out the front door to explore central Melbourne. Since I arrived in Melbourne Friday night I was able to spend more time following Evan around then I would have had I arrived during the work week. This worked to my advantage because Evan was great! Friday night we headed to a suburb where his friends were having a get together and went out to bar full of locals that I never would have found had I been with backpackers. Saturday night we headed to Fitzroy and walked along a bar laden street until ending up in "Open Bar".

I should point out here that Half of the appeal of Melbourne is that it is littered with cafes and bars that no one in their right mind would go into IF it were another city. But in Melbourne it appears the best places are in mysterious alleys and side streets. Before heading to Open Bar Evan introduced me to The Croft Institute. Picture the most stereotypical dark New York City alley you can - grubby, full of restaurant garbage bins, heavily spray painted walls, puddles unidentifiable liquids. Then add in me following a near stranger. By the time we passed the third dump bin I was rethinking my brave and brilliant idea of couch surfing. Then we came across a door with mini lights strung up above it. Inside was a purely chic, hip bar painted white with blue lights. Not only was I was clearly underdressed, I'm also quite sure I wouldn't have been able to afford a drink there! Welcome to the hidden night life of Melbourne. It says to me "hey I'm cool" not because you pay a lot for cover (there was no cover charge), but because you were actually in "the know" enough to find the place. Open Bar didn't involve an alley, but had a small street front that didn't look overly appealing to me, but opened into a funky little bar with a wicked live band playing upstairs.

Upon discovering my ignorance in Aussie music Evan also introduced me to a few artists he had on his computer that I should know if I'm going to be traveling around the country (and not completely embarass myself I suppose?). This was also an unexpected bonus of staying with Evan.

The one downside of staying with Evan was trying to figure out his apartment. My first day coming back to the apartment by myself (he had given me a key) I tried to catch the elevator up to his place. He only lives on the fourth floor, so I thought stairs made the most sense. But on opening the stairwell door I found it unlit with no lightswitch found nearby. The idea of falling up or down four flights of stairs to save energy wasn't overly appealing to I headed for the lift. The "4" button wouldn't light after hitting it a few times, instead the elevator took me to the seventh floor, then the sixth, and then back down to ground where I was greeted by the same couple I had walked in with who had stopped to talk at the front desk. The wife gave me a look that said "what are you still doing on the elevator?" and I tried to give my best "I have no idea!!" look back. She then reached over and inserted their key into a slot above the numbers to activate the elevator and hit "6". She asked which floor I was heading to and murmured something about the button not being lit up yet...... oh I knew that. The slot became painfully obvious once it had been pointed out.

The second moment of embarassment came after I headed home before Evan and found I couldn't turn on any of the lights! I think this followed because of my overly high sense of confidence from being able to get up to his apartment in the elevator alone. Sure that I had done something I shouldn't have I was afraid to turn off the only remaining light still left on. It happened to be right above my bed, but after getting ready in relative darkness I didn't want to be responsible for turning off all of the lights and having Evan not find one that worked. I mentioned it to Evan the next morning who laughed. There's a master switch by the front door that enables you to shut off all of the lights on your way out. I had walked right past it. He had turned it on when he came back and had walked in wondering how I had gone to bed with EVERY light in the apartment still on! The one light I had used was a lamp he had bought and not affected by the masterswitch.

I'm now at Rachael's and will be here until Friday when I head to Tim and Adam's. They are two of the three people I will be heading west with this Saturday. We're driving in Adam's car (an automatic, thank god) and are hoping to make it there within four days. We met Sunday for coffee, pool (where I reaffirmed my need to learn pool), dinner and a movie. They seem nice and have bought a ton of stuff for the trip already. It should be a good one!

Milford Sound

Today was the end of my Kiwi Experience. I'm in Christchurch now and head out to Auckland tomorrow before grabbing another plane to Melbourne. This morning resulted in a moment of panic when I arrived at the bus stop to discover that my name was not on the list for departures today. The same thing happened to two other passengers. Luckily there was enough room for all of us on the bus, although one of the guys sat on the floor for an hour between picking up passengers and dropping off others.
Yesterday was my day trip to Milford Sound with Sam, Mareike, Andreas, Dylan and Phil. Below are some of the stunning sights. We were also able to take a detour to an underwater observatory. Like almost everything on this trip, the pictures will do the day more justice than my descriptions.

Our underwater observatory experience

The Mossy walk

Milford Sound from the Tasman Sea

Another stunning mirrored lake. This is only the reflection and if you flip the picture upside down (which I have not figured out how to do on this blog) you cannot tell it's a reflection at all.

Be a swan, not an ostrich

Today I had my very first bungy jump with the AJ Hackett Bungy Co. in NZ. Apparently AJ Hackett was the first to invent the bungy in the 1970's. God knows what was going through his mind when he decided to jump from a great height suspended by just an elastic, but it seems to have worked because not only did he survive he also went on to run a very successful business out of Queenstown, NZ. At 134meters (440 feet) the Nevis is the highest jump in New Zealand and one of the highest in the world. Supposedly the highest is located in Capetown, South Africa, another one in Hong Kong and another in Switzerland. I don't know how those bungy jumps are set up but the Nevis is done from a cable car suspended between two hills, which makes it a bit more nerve wracking.

Here is our cable car, as viewed from the hill.

My classy bungy outfit and the Nevis viewing platform in the background.

This is the view from our lift over to the cable car. Now is when I started getting nervous.

Tom took pictures of my jump. The guys running the operation were great. Not only did they talk to you while you got geared up, but they also gave hints such as look at the hill ahead of you not down before you jump. This guy in the picture above was pointing out things and talking. He also counted down to three, otherwise I may not have jumped at all. It actually looks like I was leaning away from the edge here, which is likely.

That little dot is me from the glass floor on the cable car.

Here we are on our trip back from the cable car, happy to have survived! Well except possible Kim, who still looks a bit scared.

We're now in Queenstown. The south island reminds me a lot of Canada, I think I mentioned that before. On our way to Queenstown we stopped for lunch at Arrowtown where the below photos were taken. As you can see NZ has autumn colours as well, and this town had a very Nova Scotian feel to it. I've also noticed that, unlike Australia, drivers actually stop when it appears you want to cross the street.

This is the main street in Arrowtown, and a picture of the hillsides behind that one street.

Queenstown itself is nestled between hills, and located along a lake. A lot of the buildings are made of wood and there are a lot of sports/outdoor living-type shops. I haven't been to any ski resort towns, but this is what I would have imagined one being like. For a main city it's incredibly small, and I wish I had more time to spend here. Maybe on another trip??

I have only four days left of my Kiwi Experience trip and it feels like we've rushed through our South Island portion of the tour. The south island is much more scenic than the north when comparing lush ocean side and mountain scenes. It reminds me of Nova Scotia joined with British Columbia. We're surrounded by water, the towns are small, and mountain ranges can be seen from anywhere, but the mountains just aren't large enough to compete with BC.

This morning we took a detour from Franz Josef to Lake Matheson. The lake is formed from glacial waters and it allows for beautiful reflections when there is no wind, such as now.

Above is just the mountian's reflection.
Below are four of the other Kiwi Experience passengers at Lake Matheson.

Yesterday our group spent the day at Franz Josef where we were able to do a full day hike onto the glacier. We were divided into groups based on our "perceived" competence. I chose group one, not because of my superiour glacier hiking abilities, but because I had heard it wasn't that hard. And it was great! We got to go further and faster than the other three groups and climb through ice tunnels! The ice tunnels were full of melting water, so I don't know how much of a bragging right that brought after we were soaked through, but at least we didn't have to wait around for the other groups!

Above are Jen and I at the beginning of the Franz Josef Glacier hike. The company equipped us with mitts, hiking boots, a rain coat, water proof pants, and crampons. For those who don't know, myself included until two days ago, crampons are attachments for the bottom of your boots that, when hooked on, give amazing grip. They have eight metal, talon-like spikes that proturde outward from the boots' sole. Our guide made sure to emphasize that the spikes go away from the sole, apparently it's common for people to try to attach them with the spike pressed into their boots. I'm not too sure where the logic is there, but Ouch! The crampons were fantastic, they gave you a false sense of mountaineering experience as you clung to impossible edges and bounced around the glacier.

This was our guide Britt. I'm guessing he was explaining something important we needed to know to avoid dying, but I was far too busy taking pictures of everything.

I had my moment trying to be artistic. I didn't quite make it though.

Mareika, Sam and I at one of the "scenic lookouts" along our drive to Franz Josef.

Possum's were imported to NZ for the fur trading industry but have since become a pest and a threat to the natural eco-systems. To combat this Kiwi's have taken up eating possum pies. Apparently they taste better then they sound, but I was not adventurous enough to try one out.

This evening we arrived in Wanaka. To get here we had to drive through Mount Aspiring National Park. Above is just one of the views from the bus on our way through.

Tongariro Crossing

Today we had our 7 hour (19.8km) Tongariro Crossing Hike. It involved getting on a bus at 6:20am and driving over an hour to Mount Tongariro in Tangoriro National Park, Taupo. Apparently this walk is listed as one of the top ten in the world for day hikes. Pre-warning: do not wear sneakers, wear hiking boots. And layers are key!

Our hike begins, and I'm still all bundled up. There was frost on the ground when we arrived to the National Park, eek!!

We made it to the summit! I bee-lined for a large rock to sit on.... I think I need to get into better shape! The summit is over 1900 meters above sea level. Although to be honest I'm not really sure if that's very high for a mountain or not.

But we were above clouds! So it can't be that low right??

Emerald Lakes below the crossing. If you can see the steam raising just behind the first larger lake it's from the sulphur being let out. You could put your hand over the hole and feel the warmth, the smell however was less desirable.

The red crater.

As we got over the mountain the sun was melting the frost. Between sun, wind, high altitude and exercise I had no idea whether I was hot or cold, but the layers definitely had to go.

Our descent. If you look past the mountains you can actually see Lake Taupo behind the little lake I'm framing. It's massive, the largest on the North Island... I believe.

This is Andreas and I. We were with four other girls but then we started to speed up, and then we got a bit competitive and tried to pass as many people as possible in the last 6km. We weren't the first back, but we started last on the bus and took some detours to summits, so we made really good time in the end. Tomorrow we're spending half of our day on the bus, and I'm expecting many leg cramps!

The Kiwi Experience Begins

So it's late and I'm far too tired to come up with an interesting title. Sorry about that guys.....

I'm in NZ, in the beautiful town of Taupo which borders on a national park. As everyone knows NZ is known for natural beauty and adventure outings. What I didn't know (and maybe I was the only one who didn't know this??) is that NZ was formed by numerous volcanic eruptions is littered with volcanoes!

From one of the peaks in Auckland. I liked the image of this older man just sitting and observing the city. Your can see one of the dormant volcanoes in the distance.

Above is just one such example. This was our view driving out of Auckland, which is built on five volcano sites!

Our first day out we went to a beach where you could dig holes in the sand and find hot water springs. We tried, somewhat successfully, to dig our own bathing pool.

Bathing was followed by a walk to Cathedral Cove which had some gorgeous natural stone configurations.

I decided that if I was going to go come all the way to NZ I may as well take part in the beauty and adventure. Yesterday I went black water rafting (which should more appropriately be called underground tubing), saw crazy glowworms that reminded me of star gazing, and did a bit of cave walking. Sorry though, no pictures of that one.

Lord of the Rings brought a lot of publicity to NZ's natural beauty, and, understandably, the country is taking full advantage of that. We stopped for a lunch break in a small town that neighboured on the site where filming of the Shire (or Hobbiton as they've renamed it) took place. Cheesy picture I know, but it had to be done!

Tomorrow we head out for a 7 hour summit hike in Tangariro National Park, where one of the three volcanoes was used for LOTR filming as well.

The excitement for today was skydiving over Lake Taupo. I don't really know how to describe it, but I absolutely LOVED it! The scenery was stunning and the weather was perfect. I think it would be a bit too expensive to take up as a hobby, but it is tempting!

Our group on the way to the skydiving site.

This is the view from our plane before jumping. Jumping by the way was beyond weird. And Damien thought it would be more interesting to flip when we exited the plane, oh god! We spent the first few seconds upside down, plummeting towards earth. I was so disoriented, and I definitely screamed for most of it... at least I think I did.....

Damien, the one who made sure I wouldn't die, and I tandem skydiving.