Operation Find a Place to Live: ACCOMPLISHED!

Well, something very exciting happened today! We finally moved into a flat where we have our own space and can unpack our bags. Feels real great, I tell you what. We found the place the first day we started looking. We first called a few houses and flats, but where unsuccessul in finding any that were either large enough or fully furnished. Chris finally called an agency in the yellow pages and the lady said we could look at a place in 1 hour, so we headed on over. Right when we got there and looked around, we were pretty sure that it was what we wanted, especially since all utilities are included. But, since we still had another night at our hostel, we decided to wait until the next day to move in. So, today finally came and we woke up early, walked about, what seemed like 40 minutes with our huge packs on our backs, and arrived at the flat.

The flat is pretty big, with 4 separate rooms, 2 of which have windows to the outside. It also has a decent kitchen with all appliances. Two toilets and one shower and a washer and drier. It also has a stereo and TV and we are gonna hopefully get a DVD player added to the place, since the VCR is worthless.

Since Chris found the place, he got to choose the first room and so the rest of us drew cards to see who got to pick next. Annie picked next, then me, then Tim. Luckily, Annie didn't pick the one room I wanted, luckily, so I got to pick the other room that had windows to the outside world, and a queen size bed.

So anywhase, that's all that is new right now, I probably didn't do that great job of explaining the flat, but it is super nice to have our own space and to be able to live somewhat normal, not out of a pack, half my size. As of right now, I'm looking for a job and found 3 places that I really want to work at. Tomorrow evening I have an interview type thing where I show them my cooking skills and then they see if they want me, the restaurant is called Logan & Brown Restaurant and Bar, so check it out on google. Another is called Cafe Bastille. Those two are my favorites, so hopefully they go well. The third is a nice place, like a yacht club, but the chef didn't seem as nice an he's not hiring till the end of the month. Other than that, I'll let you all know when I get a job so I can pay this crazy thing called rent.

Chocolate, Beer, & Nature

The past few days, we've spent some time in the lame college town of Dunedin. There is not much to do after the sun goes down so all of our experiences have been daytime experiences. We first started off by visiting the Cadbury chocolate factory. When you are pretty much within a kilometer of the building, you can simply close your eyes and use your nose to guide you to the chocolate factory. It's great, all nearby smells drowned out by chocolate. Once in the factory, we got ready for the tour like an operation room. We had to remove all jewelry and had to wear hair nets. I, the only one with the little facial hair that I have, had to wear a snood, which just covered the bottom part of my face and itched a lot. Very ridiculous and I disliked the tour guide a little more for making me put it on. We then commenced the tour and everyone got a bag with a chocolate bar. Along the way, we then learned about how the stuff was made and in different rooms, gained more samples of their many chocolate bars. Cadbury is definately superior to Hershey's!!! After we learned everything and got filled up on chocolate, and seeing their chocolate fountain, that actually serves no purpose, we headed to the gift store where I purchased more candy bars!!

After the chocolate tour, we headed a few blocks away to the Speights Brewery. Here, we had an awesome tour guided that had definately been doing it for far too long. But, he made the whole tour very fun and interesting and we learned about the history of beer, their beer and company, and saw where everything went down. After the tour, we then headed to their bar, where we sampled 6 of their 7 beers, including a chocolate ale, with chocolate from the Cadbury place. It was all good beer and a good time and I would also recommend trying it if you ever see it in any stores.

The next day, we took it pretty easy and later in the day, decided to take a little hike to see some wildlife like penguins and sealions and anything else. It was only about a 30 minute walk downhill in the sand to the beach. We managed to fill our shoes with plenty of sand! We then walked along the beach were we then came up to about 20 sealions that were all just chilling around and we got within probably 2 meters of them and they didn't seem to care. Then, we turned around to the water, where we saw one coming out from the water up to the beach. We walked up close to her and all of a sudden, she got angry or something and started to charge me. I screamed like a little girl, having a huge animal charging at me and turned and ran. Luckily, I'm faster than them wadleing at me, so I taunted her 2 more times. Then, one of the males from the group started flopping towards her and started doing some weird things. He kept acted like he was gonna take a chunk out of her head but it was probably some sort of mating thing. Strangely enough, we watched a bit more as they wrestled or whatever and then caught sight of a yellow-eyed penguin. We then ran to it. It was pretty neat seeing the penguin and it climbed up a hill for no apparent reason and then just stood on the side for a long time. We probably got within about 10 meters of that little guy. After pictures and watching a bit more, we headed back to our RV, where we had to run past the sealions that had spread out more across the beach and were making loud huffing noises. We then realized that the huge hill that I jumped down, was to be climbed now and that was not fun. That is why the lady said 30 minutes there and 40 minutes back! It's one thing to walk up a rocky hill, but another to hike up sand. Much like climbing around the badlands if you've done so. Out of breath though, we finally all made it back to the camper where we emptied out our shoes and headed back to town.

Gimp Boy Goes to Hollywood

Well well everyone. I have done some awesomely crazy stupid stuff the past 2 days!! Two days ago, here in Queenstown still, we decided to go swinging. Only, this is something you won't find in the states, called the Canyon Swing, and you can see some pics on my other picture site! Basically, you stand at a platform on the edge of the canyon, 109 meters above the river and then jump. But, since they wouldn't just let us jump straight and made us to a backwards jump the first time. It was a lot of fun and pretty scary! You go backwards but instead of straight down, you kind of angle, swinging with a freefall of 60 meters like a pendulum. Then, since it was so cheap to go again, we all decided to jump again, doing what they call "Gimp boy goes to Hollywood". This is where they first strap Gimp Boy, a doll to you, and then you get strung upside down, hanging over the canyon, and you have to arc your back really far and put your arms ahead of you so you look like Superman flying straight for the ground. This was even more scarier, but a little easier since they pull a ripcord for you, counting from 5 and pulling before they get to 1!! You then rocket again into the canyon at, they say about 150 kph. Much more intense and I remember watching the rock just blurr before me as I fell.

The next day, since we were happy enough with throughing ourselves at the ground, now 3 times, including skydiving, we would go bungy jumping. I have pretty much never been so scared before in my life and was quite quiet as we were driven to the canyon to jump and waiting in the gondola. Oh yes, we didn't jump from a pretty firm bridge that doesn't move like most people, but from a gondola, held by about 4 cables across a canyon again, holding 25 of us. Also, to make it worst, you take a smaller gondola to the jump pod and this gondola has a see-thru floor and you can't even pretend that you aren't super high in the sky. But, possibly the scariest thing of all, is that this was the highest bungy jump in New Zealand! I believe it was also the 3rd highest in the world. Most bungy jumps are around 100 to 140 ft but this one was 450 ft in the air, 3 times higher than any in the States, or most other bungies in the world! Everything is very small when you are that high! So, I had about 14 people go ahead of me and they all were saying it was great, but I still wasn't reasured. It then came time for me and I walked up to the chair where they attached the 1.5 inch bungy cord to my ankle. I then had to stand up and take baby steps, since my ankles were hooked together, to the plank that was about 2 meters away but they worst was the actual plank that was about 1.5 ft long. I looked down at first at was scared enough, so I stared at the tree far ahead of me, on a hill, and kept asking if I was at the edge yet. Then, I was finally at the edge, where they threw the cord down in front of me. Then came the countdown of a lifetime! 5 (holy crap) - 4 (I shouldn't be here) - 3 ( I hate these 3 for bringing me here) - 2 (NNNOOOO!!!!!) - and 1. I was gone and willingly flying towards the ground. My hands are sweating now as I think about it! This was such a rush and then I felt the tension of the cord, 8.4 seconds later, screamed a few things and felt great! I think I had one of the biggest smiles I've had when I was pulled up and standing back in the pod, so happy for myself, not caring that I apparantly look a little funny as I jumped. I had just accomplished one of the things I thought I would never do and couldn't have been happier, the feeling afterwards was second to skydiving though. They then asked if we were going to jump again for cheaper. Oh yes, it was National Nude Bungy Day! jump again it was $79, jump in undies it was $59, and jump naked it was $39. No worries mom and dad, I said NO! and was happy when we arrived back on solid ground! We then actually got to watch as 3 guys and 1 girl did bungy naked and Chris and I kind of wished we had done it, but I have no regrets really.

Anywhase, now we have no more scary stuff to do for a while, water sports will come in the summer time, still a little cool here. Also, many of you were wondering why I am not working. This is because we have the RV for 1 more week and we aren't in a town for more than 3 days so in a week, we will look for jobs! But, I will talk more later as we are leaving Queenstown now and heading to Dunedin. Cheers.

David

Milford Sounds Daytrip

Well, the last two days, the four of us spent the time in the Fjorland National Park city of Milford Sound. It's a city in the middle of nowhere, population 170! There are no petral stations within 120km and the city has one bar/cafe. To get there, we drove through some more windy roads, although they were not the worst we have been through but there was snow on these and we actually went through a huge mountain tunnel with no lights and went straight through the moutain, about 2 miles. The weather at the sounds is almost always rainy and a clear day is very rare and sure enough, it was rainy most the time. We got onto one 2-hour cruise boat that was actually the smallest, holding 150 people but we only had 9 people on the boat so there was plenty of room to move around. The trip started out very cold and was raining, I was wearing 4 shirts, 3 long-sleeved. But, as we progressed, the weather got much nicer and we started to see blue skies near the mouth of the ocean. As we turned around, we came upon 4 dolphins that were actually quite large and swam along side us for a long time, surfacing occasionally. It was really awesome! The skies also started to clear up so we could actually see some of the peaks that jutted right out of the water, going straight up to around 2000 meters. Since the rock went pretty much straight down too, we were able to get right up to the rock and see a seal from about 10 feet away and go right up to a waterfall that was 180 meters up. The water itself is about 150 meters deep close to the rock and in the middle of the passage was 300 meters deep. Anywhase, the boat ride ended up being a lot better than it looked like it would and I got some great pics that i'll post later. The drive home too had great views of the alpes and different mountain ranges. And, to top of the trip, we almost ran out of gas, getting within 3 liters of being empty, which the petral guy, that we hunted down in a bar because his station was closed, said was a record, so go us! This trip is awesome!!!

Hear we are in Queenstown

Well, last time i posted we had gone sea kayaking. Awesomely enough, I managed to delete every single picture I had from that trip, which made me quite upset that night and the next day. Luckily though, my kind companions had taken pictures too and allowed me to steal them and claim them as my own!! So, I do have pictures of what I saw.

Since then, we haven't done a whole lot accept for sight seeing and driving around. In one town, we actually got to tour the Monteiths Brewery, which is apparantly available in the US. After the tour, we all ended up in their bar where we sampled all of their current beers and then got to pour our own. Their beer is pretty good, I would suggest looking for it.

We then went and saw the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, which I believe the northern most glaciers in the world. Pretty cool but would have been better if we actually would have climbed them.

The scenary is amazing though. Yesterday we were driving through mountains and along lakes at the same time that looked like the lord of the rings stuff. Got a few good pics!

Well, hope to update more later, off to the Milfourd Sounds tomorrow.