ooops I forgot one!

Hello,
     So it turns out I forgot to enter about my travels around Australia for the last 3 days of my trip. So here it goes.  I packed my bags and said goodbye to the beautiful town of Newcastle which I had called home for the last 5 months. Its was sad to say goodbye to the place and to the friends I had made but it was good to know that in a few days I would be home. Over the next few days I traveled with my friend Marry to see the Olympic Park in Sydney and The Blue Mountains in Katoomba.
     Getting from Newcastle to the Olympic park was a maze of trains but we made it by mid day. We walked through the main plaza found the stadium and signed up for a tour. It turned out we were the only ones that signed up so we had a nice little private tour of the stadium. It was really neat to see all the inner workings of the stadium. The stadium has gone through a lot of changes since the Olympics and looks very different. We got to see the press boxes, locker rooms, private boxes, and a lot more.

     From here we hopped on a few more trains and headed into The Blue Mountains. We rolled into town around 9pm and were surprised at the near freezing temperatures. Luckily the front desk at the Hostel hadn't closed so we were still abel to get a room. I had stayed at a lot of hostels by this point but this was the biggest dorm I had slept in, it held 16 people. We got moved in, cooked some dinner, miggeled with other people and then it was off to bed. The next day started for us at 4:45am, we needed to get a jump on the day as I had to catch my 2:30pm flight out of Sydney which was still a 3 hour train ride away.  It was pitch black, 30 degrees, and quarter inch of frost covered everything,  armed with a map and a tinny flash light we took off into town to catch the sunrise over The Blue Mountains. We navigated through the zig zaging road and found a spot to duck into the woods to go check out the three sisters. (You can see the three sisters on the second picture below here)

 I learned from my previous experiences hiking in Australia that giant spiders are a very real threat, especially in the dark, needless to say this time I was waving a stick in front of me like an angry blind man making sure no spider found my face. We ended up in a different spot than we intended but it had a beautiful view of the sunrise. It was a real treat watching the frozen valley come alive with the light; you couldn't hear another person or a car or anything, It was just you, nature, and a view to die for.  It was the perfect way to spend my final morning in Australia.  We took a quick hike around the rim, posed for a picture with the three sisters, and headed back to the hostel to catch the 9:30 train to the airport. My stay was very short in Katoomba but very much worth it.

      It was weird to board the train knowing that my next final destination would be good ol' Elma, NY.  The train ride went well and we arrived at Central Station in Sydney. From here I would go to the airport and Marry would go back to the house in Newcastle, so we said our goodbyes,  promised wed all meet up again some days soon, and then went on our separate ways.
     - Evan


 

The End . . .

Hi,
     So this is it, i've been home from my trip for 4 months now and I guess its time to close out the blog. I  constantly reflect on the great memories i've made and flip through the pictures I took. It all seams surreal! I feel very fortunate to have spent so long in such a great place and met so many great people. Living in Australia was really a treat, it was a slower way of life and more care free. Living on the beach really allowed me to just slow down and take it all in.
     The places I was abel to travel to left an ever lasting impression on me. I've learned that the best plan to have sometimes is no plan at all. When nothing is certain anything is possible.  This was the case with many of my adventures, luck is also very helpful.  I also learned that you make your own memories, no one is going to pull you off the couch, take you to Australia and make you have the time of your life, you have to do it yourself.
     Truth is I cant put it all my feelings and experiences into words.  All I know is that these 5 months surpassed my wildest expectations. This trip cost me a few thousand dollars but it was worth a few million!
      I truly have been bitten by the travel bug and I can feel it starting to itch again.
- Evan

Whitsunday Islands

Hello,

     I know its a little over due but id like to write about my final adventure in Australia.  Just before finals at school started I took a trip with 4 other friends up to the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland. Our flight landed just a 2 hour car ride south of the islands so we had to rent a car. We got our gear all loaded into the car and it was time to go .  .. or so we thought. We neglected to ask for an automatic car and this one was well . . . manuel, which non of us knew how to drive. After some discussion we decided to just go for it and our friend with 15 mins of manuel experience took the wheel. The next two hours were full of beautiful sights and the smell of a burnt clutch.

     We arrived in the town, stocked up on food, and made our way to the ferry. Our plan for the first 3 days was to camp on a beach on the back of one of the islands. We missed the early ferry as we couldn't find where to return the car so we waited for the 5:00 boat.  The ride took about 40 mins and darkness quickly fell upon us. We unloaded the boat and had no idea where to go. The captain directed us to talk to one of the workers that lived on the front of the island. We told him where were we staying and he told us he's never been there and that its a good 2 hour hike.  It was raining dark and we had no idea where we were going. He showed us where to pick up the trail and wished us luck. We began hiking on the narrow trail through the jungle breaking through unsuspecting spiderwebs with our faces. About an hour into it we decided to call it quits for the night and just setup our tents where we were.

     In the morning we hiked the rest of the way and arrived at our camp site.  On our way we encountered a spider web taking up the whole trail.  To our dismay the spider was the biggest spider ive ever seen in person or on TV! It was literally bigger than my face. We spent the next 20 mins army crawling and sending our gear under it. Arriving at our beach we found it to be veryyy remote! We set up our tent and found another on of those huge spiders right next to where we were to be sleeping. We spent the next 3 days hanging out on the beach, playing frisbee, floating and exploring in our boats and swimming in the ocean. The wild life was quite active around us, we saw crabs, nesting albatrosses, bio-luminestent marine life, a shark (unconfirmed), and even chased by stingrays.  These 3 days were very enjoyable and was a great time to slow down and enjoy such a lovely and remote place.

    Our hike back to the ferry was much more enjoyable than the hike to the camp site.  On our way we stopped at this small resort with cool little bungalows and begged for some water, (we forgot water and spent the previous 3 days without). We loaded up and took the boat back to the main land. Here we settled into a hostel on Airlie Beach and booked a trip for the next day.

     Our trip for today took us out amongst the 73 tropical islands and the Great Barrier Reef. The boat picked us up first thing in the morning and we set out to a spot to snorkel. When we got to the spot the rain stopped and the clouds broke to give us some spectacular weather to explore the reef in.  I was fortunate enough to see many fish, stingrays, crabs and even got to swim along side a sea turtle.

     From here it was about a 30min. ride to where we would take a hike. This quick hike uphill gave us an amazing view of the most beautiful beach in the world, Heavenly Beach, and it was just that, heavenly! The tide was going out and created an almost serpentine like zig zag of sand and turquoise water that went from the ocean deep into the island.  I felt like i had seen this spot before and I couldn't put my finger on it, I later realized thaafter taking many pictuers we hiked down t this exact view point is the cover picture for National Geographic's Most Beautiful Places.  After taking many pictures we hiked down opposite the side we hiked up and got to feel the amazing sand for the first time.  This sand is incredibly white and fine compared to other sands, its so fine in fact you can polish your jewelry with it.  The boat picked us up and took us to the other end of the beach where we had lunch and some time to relax and enjoy the area. The lunch was amazing and I couldn't have imagined a more pretty setting to enjoy it in.  After lunch we headed back to the mainland and the tour was over. We spent that night out on the town and enjoying our last night in paradise. In the morning I picked up a shuttle to the airport and flew back to Newcastle. I made it back to my house late that night and had a final exam at 8am that morning! and yes i did pass that one.

      My time in the Whitsunday's was amazing and the fact that i got to experience it with some awesome friends makes it even better!
- Evan
   

Fraser island final part

g'day mate,
    For our last day we all got up early to watch the sunrise and it didn't disappoint. Our first stop was inland to another lake. On our way to the lake it was really neat we got to see some planes come in for a landing on the beach, now thats something you don't see everyday.

The lake we arrived at was unique because it was positioned right at the base of a steep sand dune.  We took some card board for sledding and headed down to the lake. It was a good 5 min downhill run through the woods, naturally us 5 guys turned it into a race and it was hands down the best time i've ever  had running.

We broke out of the woods ran across the top of the dunes and we all finished the race running and rolling down the dune right into the water. It was the best finish line to a race ever! We spent the next while here trying to sled on the cardboard and just running jumping and flipping down the dunes into the water. It was perfect.

    From there we drove to the final spot which was a lake more inland. This lake was very large and had a few more of those picturesque trees growing out of the water.  We took the boats out into the water one last time and drifted until we couldn't make out the people on the shore. This was an incredibly peaceful and unique place to spend our last hours on the island.

    We left here and caught the fairy to the main land, returned the land rover and started heading home. One car went into Brisbane for the night while the car I was in ventured a little further down the coast to Byron Bay.  We got in around midnight and drove around to find a good spot to sleep in the car for the night. In the morning we awoke with hopes to rent surfboards and ride the famous Byron Bay point break. Unfortunately we were pressed for time and no place was open early enough.  Also, the waves were only about a foot high so that didnt help.  We drove the car to the shore for sunrise and man was it a good one!
    After the sunrise we hiked up to the light house, and then stocked up on food for the rest of the drive home.

We managed to make the 12 hour trip home with no directions and no address of where to return the car. Through our own awesomeness and asking people for help we managed to return the car with only 2 mins to spare. All in all the trip was a blast!
-Evan

Fraser Island part 2

Hello all,
        The next morning I woke up for sunrise and just soaked it all up!

We cooked breakfast out the back of the truck then drove north on the beach to our first spot of the day. We were heading for a place called Indian Head which is an elevated peninsula with a killer view.

 It was an absolutely beautiful day and could see clearly all up and down the coast. We spent a while gazing off the cliffs into the water. We saw a 14 foot-ish tiger shark, a sea turtle, and some stingrays. While on Indian Head we heard of a place just up the road called The Champagne Pools so we headed up that way to check them out.
        After running some pretty deep sand and a thrilling drive we parked the car and headed down to the pools. The pools were naturally made in some rocks right on the shore. When the waves crashed on the rocks the pools would bubble a lot, hence change pools.  I had a blast here, it was nature at its finest!

        After the pools we drove inland to have lunch at a lake that we heard we could see some turtles at. Driving on the beach you have to be very mindful of the tide as it does come all the way up on the beach. This time driving on the beach it got a little harry, it really felt like we were against the clock.    We got to the lake and well. . . it was really flooded with no where to even really stand. We walked out to a platform just a few feet of the shore and had a feed. Almost instantly countless turtles swam up to us, it was really cool! I even managed to catch one!

         We then headed back to camp, on our way we stopped at the invisible river. It got its name as it is so very clear with a sand bottom which makes it even harder to see the water. There rivers is pretty clear of derbies so we went for a float. This was the perfect end to the day, a nice cool relaxing float down a river through the forrest that ended at the sea with the sun setting.
- Evan

Fraser Island (part 1)

Good day mate-

      Myself and 6 other friends took a road trip 12 hours north to a very cool and unique place called Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the worlds Largest sand Island and is sonly a short fairy ride from the mainland.  One cool thing about this island is that it only has a few minor little communities on it mostly for camping but besides that the island is pure nature.  Despite hardly any housing on the island off road trails for cars criss cross the island making it an excellent playground for 4 wheel drive vehicles. The interior has trails through the thick forest connecting its many lakes and lookouts. On the shore you can drive for miles down the beaches with lush forests on one side of you ocean on the other side and nothing but sand beneath you, it is really quite neat!

      We left right after classes at around 5pm, despite getting lost right off the bat we drove straight through the night and arrive perfectly on time to get briefed about the Land Rover we would be renting.   After a few quick do's and dont's from the company (there were many more dont's than do's) it was time to set sail.... literally though we had to catch the fairy to the island. We waited in line and backed our truck onto the boat along with about 20 other cars.

We arrived on the island and were greeted by a few pelicans just chilling out on the beach. We drove down the winding sand path through the forrest for a while until we came to our first lake. We ate lunch here and explored around. The lakes in the island are pretty unique, you may think how can a lake be on a pure sand island wouldn't the water just leak out? Its true it would but with a great amount of vegetation on the island over the years the old and dead vegetation has settled into the low parts of the island and made an impervious layer the water can not get out of. Over the past 3 years the island has gotten massive rains so these lakes have risen to about 5 to 10 feet above their normal state. This means that all the visitor board walks and plaques are underwater which is a pretty neat sight. This was the case at our first stop. We embraced the high water levels tossed on our bathing suits and went for a swim to get a better view. It was a really treat to swim in fresh water and it was quite warm! With the flooding theres some unique trees growing out of the water, we found one and decided to climb it.

After that we ventured down the shore where there was more of a beach. We hung out here for a few more hours. Myself and two of the other guys brought blow up rafts so we pulled those our of the truck and went for a float in the lake. It was great getting to explore all around and just hang out on a bright beautiful sunny day!

         We hopped back in the truck and back tracked a little to get out to the beach. We drove north for a few km just taking in the sights. As darkness moved in we found a camp sight just atop a sand bank right on the beach. We watched the sun set set up our tents and cooked dinner. The dingos were really out that night, we saw two on our drive up the beach, 2 more came running through our campsite and while we were out stargazing on the beach we had one walk right at us and one sneak up behind us. The ones we saw stargazing came up really close so we shined our lights on them and tried to scare them away. The dingos took off in a full sprint running a bit of a half circle around us before disappearing off into the woods. It was very cool to see these animals up close and personal!
-Evan
   

Tasmania Part 4

Hello folks,
        I woke up on our second to last day and decided to catch the sunrise from atop the nut. On the hike up I passed literally over a hundred wallabies it was pretty crazy. The hike was very very steep and gave great views of the  town below and the beaches. It was amazing up there a very unique landscape with not a person in sight. I couldn't have asked for a better setting to watch the sunrise. After the sunrise I spent and hour our so exploring around the nut. We all met up back at the hostel and starting driving east across the north shore. In about an hour we stopped at Rocky Cape National Park. It was well... rocky and very cool!

      From here we went to the town of Penguin (yes thats its name) and attended the local sunday market. There was food, shops, and a mini beer garden with live music. We had a look around and found some interesting stuff. There was one stand where it was just a girl standing in front of a framed picture of her with the cast of some Australian TV show. She wasnt even selling anything she was just talking about her experience of meting these people..... kinda of odd if you ask me. There was one guy who looked like he just unloaded his garage and attic with no order into his spot so I went over and talked with him. He pulled out a mini sward almost a dagger but bigger and told me that it was a Nazi officer sward from back in the day. It had some gems on it and even a few swastikas, he was asking $3,500 for it, I passed but it was still really cool to hold a piece of history like that.
 
     We stocked up on some local bake goods and fruit and hit the road. We found another water fall or two to hike and made our way to a nature park to see some animals up close and personal. The park was only open for another hour so I didnt buy a ticket saving me a few bucks, I was happy just seeing the wild penguins the night before. While I waited out side with Monica it started to rain and next thing we knew and killer double rainbow sprung up in the valley. It was perfect you could see both ends on end even looked like it stopped right on top of a sheep. We wondered around to take some pictures of the rainbow and found that one of the gates to the park was open so we got inside to see some animals for free. It was a nice little added bonus.

      From here we drove a few more hours to Launceston and settled into our hostel for the night. This hostel was huge and very very nice, we all really enjoyed it. In the morning we dropped of Cristian at the airport and spend our final day exploring Launceston. We hiked a path through a gorge on the edge of the city and just spent the day taking it easy.

       The next day I flew back to Sydney and back to reality, well kinda.  I had an absolute blast on this trip!!! Traveling around with three other strangers in a foreign land was really special. I have really been wanting to do this type of trip and it was even more fun than I could have imagined!
-Evan

Tasmania prt. 3

    Hello!

       I woke up, made some breakfast and ate outside to watch the moon set and the fog lift out of the valley. Then it was back in the car and off to Cradle Mountain National Park.  The drive here was stunning and very windy. We really lucked out with the weather as the rain and clouds that have been hanging around for three days finally lifted. This was quite a big deal as the peaks of Cradle Mountain are the main attraction and well if its cloudy you cant see them. The peaks were gorgeous! and quite unique. We did a hike around dove lake which sits right at the base of the mountain. It took about 3 hours and gave us some killer views. On our way back from the mountains we can across a wallaby just hanging out in the trail. We posed for pictures and he let us get closer and close. There was one point where I was looking into his eyes and him into mine and a strong wind came and I could see him squint and lean into the wind as to not get blown over. It was really neat, kinda of felt a connection to that little guy on a weird level. After that we hopped in our car and pointed north to the town of Stanley.

      The difference in temperature from the mountainous south to the coastal north was a pleasant treat, a little more warmth made a whole lot of difference. Stanley was a unique town situated at the end of a peninsula at the base of a big rock mountain type thing that they call "The Nut." We saw a isng on the way in calming that it has been named as the "tidiest town in tazzy" and it was pretty clear to see why. We found accommodations for the night and I opted for another night in the car. We got settled in and made some dinner. Once the sun had set we headed out to see if we could find ourselves some penguins! Walking through the town we passed many restaurants, none that could hold more than 20 people. They were tucked into quaint little spots  and gave a very nice feeling to the town. We found our way to the beach and had a look around but it was so dark if there were penguins we wouldn't have even known it.  We took a stroll on the very wide beach and headed back to the hostel in the rain slightly disappointed.

      Back at the hostel we started talking with a couple from France. We told them about our failed attempt at finding penguins, and to our delight they told us about their successful attempt only 20 minuets earlier.  Stewart hooked us up with a head lamp and a hand drawn map and we were back off into the rain to find some penguins! The map he drew was kind of confusing and led us right into a cemetery. Long story short we ended up walking around this cemetery in a pretty spooky storm when we should have continued down the road. We got to the rocks and started looking around. I heard some chirping ( thats whats well call the sound they made) and headed towards it, and BAMM found some penguins! They were small little guys only about a foot tall. We spent the next hour or so looking around and finding more penguins,  and even found another wallaby.

- Evan

Tasmania prt 2

Hi,
     We awoke to a very cold morning and some rain that hung around for the next 3 days. Our first stop of the day was to take a hike around Lake St.Clair which was only about a 5 min drive away. It was a nice walk through many different types of scenery. From there we starting driving towards the west coast. On our way to Queenstown we found another waterfall to hike to and the rain picked up a ton! Nelson Falls was the coolest waterfall in my opinion it was just awesome, tucked back deep in a lush green forrest with a pretty heavy rain really set an unique mood.

     Driving after the waterfall was quite crazy! So much rain our wipers couldnt keep up, probably not the best time for that to happen because we were driving through the mountains on narrow winding roads. I enjoyed driving in this weather especially because all the rain made the mountains come alive with waterfalls which was really neat. We arrived in Queenstown and got settled in there. The hostel had heated blankets that covered you on the top and bottom, it was perfect after a cold rainy day.

     The next day we got to the west coast town of Strahn and did a hike there and had a look around town. Then we started heading north. Our first stop was at a secluded beach after traveling miles down a dirt road. It was really awesome because on the west side of the island is the Indian Ocean, so that was pretty neat to see but it looks just like the rest . . . . The weather that day was also sub-par but I loved it. Mother nature was really pissed off that day, high winds and rain made for a really cool beach scene. There were white caps for as far as the eye could see and knee high sea foam being blown in in thick walls. Christen and I walked close to the water only to get caught by one of these walls, harmless but it was really fun to try and out run them and not step in the pools of water that had formed.

       From there we stopped at Henty Dunes just up the road. On one side of the road was lush green forest and on the other side were seemingly endless sandunes. We hiked up to the top and found it to be quite windy. The rest of the group went back to the car but I wanted to hike around a bit more. It turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of the trip for me. I really enjoyed the solitude of being on these massive sand dues over looking the ocean. I came across one spot where the sand had been blown into a nice peak ( exactly like you see in movies when people are lost in the desert). Walking across it on the peak was really neat because the sand was so unsupported on the top that I sunk up to my knee or higher with every step, like dry quicksand. The drop off on one side was pretty steep so I made a bit of a platform that I could get a running start and jump from. Needless to say I was entertained here for quite some time doing flips, spins and seeing how big of an avalanche I could make.
      Then we drove to the very very very small mining town of Rosebery. We stayed here for the night at a hostel situated just atop a waterfall. We spent our night making dinner and relaxing
in the common room/kitchen with all the miners. The miners we super friendly and it was great to swap stories with them. One nice miner gave us heaps of information about the rest of the island so we re planned the second half of the trip to see some stuff that he had mentioned, mainly penguins in the town of Stanley on the north shore.  That night there was an AFL game on tv so watching it beside the miners as they cheered and hollered at the tv was pretty entertaining, they were nice enough to try and familiarize us with the rules. (AFL is the Australian Football League and its one hell of a sport. Picture our NFL with no rules and no padding)  This night it was warm enough for me to save a few bucks and sleep in the car so I did. It proved to be a pretty poor decision as I woke up many times throughout the night to guys slamming their cars door on their way to the mines.

- Evan

 

 

Tasmania (prt 1)

Hello world!

     Oh man where do I even start with Tasmania, it was all a blast! Im not sure what drew me to go there, maybe the awesome name or the amazing wilderness, probably both actually, but I knew it was just someplace I had to go.  I bought my tickets flying into Hobart and departing 3 hours north from Launceston 6 days later. At this point I had zero plans and in a worst case scenario I would spend those 6 days just trying to get to Launceston. I began to look into places around there to couchsurf at in Hobart for the first night. For those of you that dont know what couchsurfing is let me fill you in. Couchsurfing is an internet based community that revolves around traveling  (kinda like Facebook where you can "friend" people and see their profiles). This internet community allows you to find other people that will host you at their house for a given length of time and in return you offer those same services to someone who might be traveling around your home area (and of course you have the right to deny people, they dont just show up at your doorstep). So I began looking for a host using this community, then I thought about posting on the community page and seeing if anyone would like to take a road trip around the island. I was looking to hopefully get 4 people or so to travel around and split the costs. So I wrote up a short message and posted it on Hobarts community page, shortly after posting I found a post someone else had made stating the same thing! and most importantly he was leaving out of Launceston the same day I was, PERFECT! (turns out we were actually on the same flight...weird) So this was how I met Adriano a 23 year old bloke from Brazil. We tried to find some more people to travel with us. At one point we were up to 4 people and even had a free VW Bus at our disposal. But if theres always one thing you can rely on its change and before we knew it we had lost the 2 others and our bus...   :(   I was really looking forward to the bus. 

      I caught the train into Sydney and flew off to Tasmania. On the plane I sat next to this nice 20 year old guy named Joe from Sydney who had some awesome dreadlocks (dont worry mom I didnt get dreadlocks....yet). We had some great conversations and he told me all about Tasmania. (Joe if youre out there I lost your contact info, sorry man.) 

       I touched down in Tazzy (as the locals call it) and looked around for Adriano as he was to pick me up at the Airport with the car. . .but things are not always that simple. I got a text from him saying that plans have changed 1) we are now traveling with 4 of us! which is awesome I was super pumped for that! and 2) that they were not at the air port and I was to catch a shuttle to address "X" about 30 mins away where they would be. So I found a shuttle hopped on and off I went. The ride had great views going into hobart and saw                                            (Russell Falls)

my first of many rainbows in Tasmania. I had a pleasant conversation with a lady named Pip whos from south of Sydney but raised in Tazzy. She was very nice and invited me to stay with her family. (Pip if youre out there I lost your contact info, sorry, thanks for the   

offer). Well I got dropped of and looked at my phone and there was another message. Adriano messaged me saying that they had been kicked out of that place and that they were no longer there and I was to walk to the corner of "Y" and "Z" to find him. It was pretty cool I felt like I was on the TV show The Amazing Race just chasing checkpoints around a foreign city! Not to long later I finally found Andriao! He told me that he had met two other people in the hostel the night before that would like to travel with us so we went to go meet them.

       Under an overhang of a building trying to escape the wind I met Monika, a 26 year old female from lithuania who now lives in Denmark. Monika is a great person who made the trip a ton of fun and always had a cool story to share. Working in Copenhagen she has served breakfast to some very famous people including, Prince, Whitney Houston, Steve Wonder and Boyd Tinsley from Dave Matthews Band. Here I also met Cristian a 26 year old male from Chile. Cristians in Australia studying at the University of Queensland. 

       Together we made quite the international group. Its hard to say what places is my favorite of the ones I have traveled to so far, its like comparing apples to oranges. But, I can say that Tasmania has been my favorite method of traveling. Meeting three complete strangers and jumping in a car for a week to explore some of the worlds most impressive and untouched nature was just an amazing experience! I can not speak of it highly enough. 

      So we spent the next few hours walking all round Hobart trying to rent a car. It proved to be quite tricky and we ended up departing a few hours late but it was great to finally hit the road. Our first stop was Mount field National Park. We got there quite late and decided to go for the hike knowing we would return well into the dark of night. We hiked to Russell Falls which is one of the most famous and beautiful waterfalls on the island. It was absolutely stunning! we took some pictures and then continued down the trail onto the Tall Trees Walk. These are the second tallest trees in the world just behind the great Redwoods of California, but they do hold the record as the tallest flowering plant in the world. The trees here are Eucalyptus Trees and are very beautiful. A neat thing happens to these trees, as they get older they shed their limbs on the way up and as the limbs fall to the ground they tare off the bark all the way down kind of like string cheese. So the trees look pretty gnarly sometimes with their bark just all tattered. A lot of times it just sits in big piles at their base and across the trail. Hiking back in the dark  we start to see the wildlife come out. We saw our first Wallaby and it was so cool! Just this little kangaroo like guy hopping around. Then we saw another! and another . . .and another . . . . . .and another . . . . . . . . they were everywhere! We got back to the car park and there was a small field with a good 25  of them or so. 

       We got in the car and drove to Lake St.Clair where we would stay for the night. We pulled up to this magnificent wood and stone building that seemed as if it came right out of no where. Getting out of the car was a bit of a shock as the air had cooled of to about 1 or 2 degrees Celsius. We walked inside and were greeted with the smell of two wood fires burning in the main room. The building was fantastic, it was full of character and made you just want to hibernate in it for the winter. We payed for our rooms and were directed to the hostel part which unfortunately was not part of this main area. The hostel was a trailer fitted into about 7 single units that measured about 5 foot by 10 foot with just a heater, a counter, a small window, and a bed. We made some dinner, got to know each other better and then it was off to bed.

Cheers,

Evan

                   (standing in a fallen tall tree) 

    

New Zealand day 10-14 end

Hello once again,
     Day 10 started with us driving to the humble town of Wananka situated perfectly between mountains and a lake. We arrived just before noon had some lunch and got our rooms and the rest of the day was ours. I choose to take a hike up a near by mountain with some friends. There was a really steep section that provided us with a good hour of entertainments just by rolling rocks down it and seeing how far they would go (despite getting older im still easily entertained). We spent the afternoon just taking in the views from the top. When we got back to the hostel it was time for dinner and then later some Karaoke which got pretty wild!

     Day 11 we said goodbye to Wanaka and headed off to Fox Glacier in an even smaller more remote town. In about 1 hour of driving in this area we went from a beach, to a rainforest, to mounatins and a glacier, talk about seeing it all. Once there they hooked us up with some gear for climbing then bussed us over to the Glacier. This glacier is one of only two spots in the world where a glacier descends into a rainforest. New Zealand has over 3,000 glaciers and this is one of its most famous. I found the drive over the glacier to be very entertaining. Along the way we passed many signs that told us where the glacier had been previously in history, it was incredible to see how much it has receded even in the past 50 years. Also while we were driving our tour guide told us to pay attention to the next little stretch of road ahead and see if we noticed anything. I only felt us go over a medium sized dip in the road but nothing major so I wondered if i had missed anything. Our guide proceed to tell us that that dip was us driving off one tectonic plate onto another, specifically driving off the Indo Australian Plate and onto the Pacific Plate. This contact point is the reasons these mountains and the rest of New Zealand exist. We parked the vans and it was about an hour walk up to the glacier.

 The walk up was spectacular to see how the mountains have been carved out by the glaciers after thousands of years of erosion. There were many mountains that just stopped abruptly and turned into cliffs, you could tell that at one point the ice had been that far down the valley and that high up the mountain. There was even a point in history where this glacier flowed 10km out to sea.  On the glacier it was quite cold and a little rainy but that just adds to the experience. We hiked around for a while and got to see some neat features and even some people doing ice climbing and repelling.

     After the hike we headed off to get settled into our hostel for then night. This was my favorite hostel during the whole trip. Our room was separate from the main area, it was basically our own little house with a private kitchen and living room.  After dinner a group of us spent about 3 hours in the hot tub sharing stories, reminiscing about the trip, and just looking up at the stars which were phenomenal!

     Day 12 was our last day traveling with the tour. We drove back from Fox Glacier to Christchurch and made many stops along the way, including a black sand beach.
     When in Christchurch our bus drive Seagull was kind enough to drive us around and show us the devastation by the recent and powerful earthquakes that have ravaged Christchurch.  During 2011 Christchurch got hit with a string of very powerful earthquakes and their subsequent after shocks. The most damaging of which happened in February of 2011 killing 185 people. An astonishing 75% of the buildings in the city center had to be demolished and rebuit. We drove through the city center and there was flattened properties everywhere you looked. Theres still even a significant number of properties that have shipping containers stacked up 7 high and 3 deep to keep the building from crumbling into the streets bellow. The hostel we stayed at in the beginning of the trip was a black away from an old stone church that had been destroyed. The whole face of the building was gone, it was pretty erie to see clear into a second story room with a table and chairs still set up, a safe that had busted out of the wall, and a single lightbuld barely hanging form the celling. Unfortunately this scene still describes a lot of the structures in the city. Everyone we talked to had their own special stories about the event. One guy was in a bar and he just kept on drinking because he said "you're more likely to get killed if you run out side." Another lady told us about one of her friends that got shook literally right out of her house and woke up on the lawn, and of another person who run outside only to get trapped in their front yard up to their waist because it had liquified from all that shaking. The citys doing their best to come back, making most stuff out of shipping containers, but they've still got a long way to go.

      We then made our way to the hostel which was basically some crazy cat ladies house and spend part of the night there before heading to the airport to fly out.
     Day 13, we got the the airport just after 1am for our 7am flight. No shuttle service would pick us up early enough to catch our flight so we had to get there late the night before to be safe. This mean ending the trip with just the way I had stared it, with a night sleeping on the floor of the airport.

All in all I had the time of my life in New Zealand! I had so many great experiences and got to venture to  hidden gems of the world I never thought existed. I even got to do it with great people who became great friends.

-Evan

New Zealand day 9

Hello folks,

      This next day in New Zealand was hands down my favorite of the trip. The first experience of the day was the famous Shotover Jet. As a kid growing up we had a ski movie that I would watch every time the first snow of the season came, and about 20 times after that. It was a Warren Miller film from the mid 80's titled Steep and Deep. One of the segments featured skiing in New Zealand and included a few minutes of the Shotover Jet. Having seen this countless times as a kid I was really looking forward to doing this even as soon as I found out I would be studying in Australia. They gave us some raincoats and life jackets and then it was on the boat. I was fortunate enough to get a seat at the end of the row and  really got to experience the river up close and personal. The Shotover River is a very narrow river that has chiseled its way deep through the rocks. The river also opens up to some pretty wide spots with nice views, but the catch with these wider areas is that they are quite shallow. No worries though, the little red boats can operate in just 4 inches of water. They're powered by twin jets putting out 8,000 lieters of water a second taking the boat to 85km/hr. Sure many other boats go faster but man going 85km/hr with walls of rock about two inchs away not exaggerating) from the boat you feel like you're going 200km/hr. The ride was absolutely exhilarating and surpassed all my childhood expectations! 

      About 20 steps away from there we hopped into some wet suites to get ready for white water rafting. Then we hopped into a bus and got dropped of on the side of a mountain.... then a helicopter came and picked us up! and that was just awesome!!! I did some quick math and realized if we waited to the end of the groups we would have a few less people in our helicopter meaning better views for us so we hung back until the end. When we got in the helicopter the pilot took off and told us we were in for a treat because we had less weight due to less people and from burning off flue from the other trips before us. It was amazing! flying around the mountains, criss crossing the river, and flying over the occasional mountain bikers. The pilot took us into zero gravity (or pretty dam near zero gravity) about 4 times and did some killer bank turns that drove you deep into your seats. The flights was pretty disorientating with all the crazy turns and no flat line of sight but it was perfect! 

       My day was more than made with the Shotover Jet and the Heli ride all alone or hell just from being in New Zealand but there was still white water rafting left to do! So we rafted up and headed down the Shotover River. The water was so nice and cold and once again it was safe to drink so were just gobbling it up left and right. The rapids weren't as crazy as I was hoping for but that was ok. In the quite stretches of the river we would jump out of the boats and try and pull each other in, it was pretty entertaining. The final stretch of the river was really neat because it had been diverted into a cave by a few Australia blokes back in the day. This meant we got to do some black water rafting and to make it even better exciting the cave let out into the best stretch of rapids the whole day. The rafting ended exactly where the Shotover Jets were earlier in the day so it was really neat having the jet boats zip around us. We loaded up the boats and headed back to return the wetsuits. The day was wrapped up by a nice sauna at the rafting headquarters. 

 - Evan 

NZ days 6-8

Hello,

(sorry for the long time between the last post and now)

     We spent the night in the small lake side town of Te Anau and in the morning headed off to the glow worm caves. The boat picked us up bright and early on a cool foggy morning to take us across the lake to the start of the caves. Once there we divided into small groups and headed in. We spent 15 mins walking up the caves criss crossing over the running water and water falls until we got to a small boat that would take us further into the depths of the cave. It was really neat seeing the worms glowing in the pitch black cave. There was zero light to provide any sort of depth perception so it appeared as if you were gazing into the sky on a starry night even though the roof was only a meter or two over head. Then it was back across the lake back on the bus and back to Queenstown.

     Once back it was Easter Sunday so some celebration was in order. We headed into town and found an all you can eat pizza deal and had ourselves a feast!
     The next day was our free day in Queenstown, there were options of skydiving, canyoning, canyon swinging, hang gliding, and much more but all for an extra expense on top of the trip. I chose to save some money and spend the day doing cheaper adventure filled things. I spent some time in the hot tub, explored the town, felt the worlds softest rug, feed the ducks on the shore, and even play a round of putt putt.
      The fallowing day we headed to the mountain for some activities. We walked to the base  and took a gondola straight up the face to the summit passing right by the bungie jump platform that we would be jumping from later. The platform was a big metal arm that extended out from the side of the mountain and was just a little shaky. Compared to other bungies this one is relatively short, only 43 meters, but arguably has the best view in the world. Standing up on the platform I was very anxious to jump I had been looking forward to this for a while and it was finally here. Once I was all strapped in they let you walkup to the edge to get an awesome view of Queenstown, the mountains, and the lake. Then it was a few steps back to get a running start, a short countdown, and then . . . the jump! It was awesome!!! Its definitely something I want to do another 10 times or so to really get the feeling of it and try some different ways to jump off.
        After bungie jumping we got to go down the luge track that was just a short walk away on the mountain. The track was all down hill so the karts had only three functions turning, breaking and... flipping. Naturally we started racing between a bunch of us and things got a little crazy. After a few collisions, some minor injuries, and a lot of fun we headed back down the mountain and cooked some dinner.
 - Evan




   

New Zealand (Day 4-5)

 Hello Friends, Family and other people I may not know,       

         (To start at the beginning of the trip scroll down to Day 0 - 3). Now that we had made it back to Queenstown it was time to begin the tour! Our bus picked us up from the hostel around 8 o clock and we began our full day drive to Queenstown (The adventure capital of the world). Our tour guided was named Max (a typical name) and our bus driver was named seagull (not a typical name) they were both excellent! On our way we stopped at a local farm to learn about their way of life and have some lunch. We got to walk around the farm and feed some sheep.  Lunch was a very nice home cooked meal full of locally grown food. Then we continued onto Queenstown. 

          Along the way we stopped at many look out points including many glacial lakes. Ive seen some very blue water in the ocean and lakes before but these glacial lakes had a very unique water color, it looked fake in a way.  Just down the road we passed by the worlds largest water sprinkler, its over 1 Km long. (We also stopped in a town and saw the worlds largest knit sweater). We arrived in our hostel just in time to watch the sunset over the town. The backdrop for the town is a beautiful lake and a mountain range called the Remarkables, and they are just that, remarkable!  They are only 1 of 2 mountain ranges in the world to run perfectly North to South.  These mountains are featured in quite a bit of movies, mainly the Lord of The Rings when they light the signal fires across the mountaintops.  The hostel was situated on the side of the mountain, great for views of the town, terrible to walk up to after a long day, but there was a hot tub so all was good. 

      The next day we drove to Milford Sound, which has to be one of the most epically stunning places in the world even on a cloudy rainy day. It was a bit of a long drive but there was plenty to see along the way! There were endless golden fields, reflective lakes, waterfalls, fresh streams, smooth lush green mountains, jagged Rocky Mountains, and glaciers. We stopped at many of these places for a look around and a quick explore. I really enjoyed these stops mainly because I got to fill up my water bottle with some fresh glacial water.  We had some lunch and then it was time to hop on the boat and go explore Milford Sound up close and personal.

     


        Milford sound is actually a fjord and is a World Heritage Site. It is also home to the worlds tallest mountain that continues right into the sea. We took a 2 hour boat tour all around the fjord and out into the open sea. In the fjord you’re surrounded by mountains and water falls 360 degrees around. The mountains are scared with evidence of past tree slides.  The trees grow on the shallow moss all along the steep sides of the mountains and when the growth becomes just heavy enough it gives way creating a land slide wiping out all the growth below it. Its hard to grasp just how large everything is, occasionally seeing a boat or a plane against the back drop put everything into perspective.  We sailed close to the shore and were able to see some seals basking in what little sun there was that day.  The captain took us to the base of a waterfall, which was really cool. Most people stayed up on the drier upper deck but a few friends and I opted for the much wetter bow of the boat. The amount of wind and water coming at us was incredible!When we sailed out into the sea the waves picked up quite a lot and our boat was not very big so it was a pretty awesome ride. Once again the bow of the boat was the place to be. Waves just crashing over the railings and soaking us from head to toe! It was a pretty cold day but it was worth it! We even got to see some more albatrosses so needless to say it was a great day! 

Cheers,

Evan