Feb. 29th 2009

Kaikoura!!!The drive from Picton to Kaikoura was absolutely gorgeous. I would love to describe to you all exactly what this place looks like but words and even the photos that I have taken do not give it any justice.
We went strait to the cliffs of Kaikoura where you can do the peninsula walkway. The trek is about 5.5 miles and takes about 2 hours. It was a great walk with some photo opportunities along the way. you can see a bunch of 
fur seals around us as we walked the coast line. We buy a Christchurch paper after a bite to eat and start traveling to these small towns around Christchurch looking for a place to rent for a while.
We ended staying in Rangoria which is 45min. out side of Christchurch. The lady at our hotel called a friend who has a Bach outside of Pines Beach. We are meeting them tomorrow to look at the place.
Hopefully when I write my next entry it will be from our new pad. See you then.....

Feb. 28th 2009

It's still raining.. We go drop off our rental at the airport and call in a reservation for the ferry to take us to the south island. The ferry was 220NZ for us two and the new ride. I guess it could have been
allot more money for they are the only service in this country that transports cars from one island to the other. The ferry leaves at 6:30pm. This gives us some time to do some repairs on the new car.
We cant decide what to call our new ride. I think Frank is a good name, for no particular reason. We fix a broken head light and the locks on the front door. I feel like McGiver.

We boarded the small Cruise line for a three hour trip from the Wellington to Picton. As we are making our way up to the lounge area I start a conversation with a guy who has a Clemson tigers football shirt on.
He was in New Zealand with his wife for their honeymoon. They were great people. We sat and visited the whole trip with them while partaking in tasting about every white wine that the South Island has to offer.
It was a good training course for the vineyards to come. We got in late and we stayed in Kaikoura. No hotels rooms available all along the coast.

Feb. 27th 2009

our goal today is to find and purchase some means of transportation. We get word of a guy in the lower hut who has tuns of cars that are in our price range.
we have no time to spare because we turn in the rental tomorrow morning. I wanted a car for the main reason of not having to haul all our shit on public transportation. It
will also help to have something to store our stuff in while we are doing our things out and about.

The only other stop we made was a store in Levin. It was a retail store and  production plant of a brand of clothing that I discovered at a fly-shop out side of lake Taupo.To all 
my buddies who are reading this you have to check out this gear. The brand is called (Swazi). It fits like Northface, feels like Mountain hardware, and looks like Patagonia. 
We got to see the production shop. It's cool because one person works on one article of clothing the whole time. Their is no assembly line. Actually There is a tag on the 
clothes that had the name of the person who made it. For example my new fleece vest was made by a woman named Wilkie. Well done Wilkie, it fits like a glove.
We were in the main shop so we got everything super cheep. That's good thought because I almost bought the whole store..

We move on..

We got to the lower hut and meet our hook-up man  that goes by the name of Adrian. After a long process of deciding what money we want to spend and what will keep us moving down the road, we make a 
purchase. I am proud to announce that I am a half owner of a 1996 Mitsubishi Leglum ls. Its like a Subaru but not as cool. We paid 2700 NZ cash for this thing. It will cost us about $650 American 
after its all said and done. Adrian promises that he will buy it back for 1500, but we will have to see about that, wont we!!
Its been a long day and its pissing rain so we just want to get a room and get ready to get to the south Island.

We walk around the square in Wellington and its very impressive. It reminds me of a small Austin, Texas. The crowd is young and very retro. Allot of live music on the streets and in the bars. It was a very
hip town. Cody and I both agreed that we would rather say out of the big towns for that's not what this trip is about.Its about the back roads! I enjoy the small town atmosphere and the things that a big town can not offer.

Feb. 26th 2009

OK. Day after our first trek... My legs are a little like jello but not as bad as I expected. We get to know the owners of the small motel that we are staying at.
They were fantastic. They bought the little motel in Turangi about a year ago after selling their apple farm. The small town of Turangi is known as the fly fishing 
capital of the world. We didn't get to fish because of the time constraints we had on getting the rent-a-car back to the wellington airport.

We stop in a small town called National Park Village for some food and drank. It was a great little bar that serves as a base camp for the night life when the ski season
is upon them. It reminded me allot of the little pubs in the Breckenridge, Colorado. We head on and are taking a look at cars for sale along the way. We decided to call it a
night in a town called Bulls. Allot of the bars here also have a hotel usually above the bar (just like J's bistro), and if your in a really small town there is only one bar. This making it only one hotel to stay at in these small towns. They 
are nice but you will hear the party at full blast till they start running the locals out around one or two in the morning.

6:30 Feb. 25th 2009

We get up early for the trek, but not early enough. We could not make the bus that would take you to the drop off and then pick you up on the other side of the mountain. No worries.. we go ahead and head to the National park get the information that we needed and headed off to Tongariro crossing for our first big hike.Difficulty level is high and we are pumped about the challenge.

later that day. After trek!

Wow what a day. We decided not to stay the night on the mountain, because our time is limited with getting this rent a car back to Wellington. We trek-ed to a Red Crater which was 1,599 meters high. It was a 8 hour hike and it was worth every step. Pictures will be on facebook and you can see what I'm talking about. The higher we went the colder and the harder it was to breath. Good thing I'm a bad ass! HAHA.

 

I'll let you know what my legs feel like tomorrow.

A few tid-bits so far..

 

While in Whangarei I had some laundry that was not dry from the previous day. I had a nice pair of boxers that I bought from REI before we left. They were good undies while they lasted. I got the great idea that they could dry if I put them in the microwave. Well, boys and girls.... They melted! Lesson learned.

 

So far we have met people from Australia, UK, Israel, Ireland, England,China, Holland, Germany, and the states. All have been a pleasure to visit with.

 

The people in NZ can never figure out if we are from Canada or the USA.. The funny thing is Americans don't care if the question is asked, but if a Canadian is miss represented and thought of from coming from the states they get really ticked off.  We cant tell the difference between a NZ and a Australian.  Its a funny world.

 

The girls are slammin hot! If I can't catch trout maybe I can land one of these ladies. 

 

 Mom please send to whom ever you would like.

10:00am Feb. 24th 2009

We are heading to Tongariro National Park where the Tongariro Crossing is located. We head south and find ourselves driving for a good bit. We stop and eat a bite in Hamilton, which was nothing special so we head on. We get to a stopping point in Taupo and it was getting late. We learned quick that the Kiwi life is so simple and that being said if you don't get to a hotel before 8:00pm you might not get a bed for the night. 

We went cheep this night. We paid $15 American a piece for a 5x5 room with Cody on the single bed and me on the floor. Lets just say that he's a better Rock, Paper, Scissors player than I am. It wasn't that bad because everything in this country is so damn clean. The restrooms and showers are great and the people who run these 5x5 rooms will be willing to help you with anything that you may need.

Next Morning 6:45am Feb. 23rd 2009

We book another night at the backpackers and head to the port which is about two minute away from where we are staying and boarded the 43ft vessel named "Monterrey".The captain's name was "Rob" a Kiwi who had 3 boats in the bay and a deck hand "Courtney" who was from Australia. Two other people were on the boat. A young couple from
Sweden. 

To make a long story a little bit shorter, NO we did not get a Marlin but the trip was a success. We got a good buzz with some great people and listened to Clapton on the big sound system while seeing some of the best of the country side. I will have video on facebook soon. We saw two striped marlin  and one blue along the way but no bites. Got some more sun burn even after applying SPF 70+ every hour. Only one out of ten boats in the town Paihia pulled in a marlin that day. A 680 pound blue was caught only about a mile from us. The trip was only supposed to last till 5:00 but he really liked our moral and the love of the game. He kept us trailing for marlin until dark.

I got a large dose of reality while talking to the captain who was a collector of Classic Cars like corvettes. He asked me what was under my hood of my truck. I could only give him the basic information about the motor. He freaked out and couldn't believe that I had no knowledge of what I was driving. He ask how could someone own something and have know knowledge on how it works. Its true how a lot of Americans just care if the car starts and know nothing of how the machine works. It's almost like a "care about what you have" mentality in NZ. Take the time to learn about what you use on a daily basis. He's right!

 

No fish No worries! That's life.