A Week in Sydney

Sydney, Australia has treated us very well. We have been staying by the Manly area, on the northeast shore of Sydney, at Nick's mate Guy's house. During our time here we have gone to some Manly beaches, a Manly bar, a Manly restaurant, and have rode a Manly ferry.The Sydney Opera House was everything I had expected and then some. Its located in a central location by the harbour so it was one of the first things we saw and we also passed daily.
The view from the ferry as we approached the ferry terminal. The opera house shown next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Getting close to the opera house. It wasn't as white as I'd expected, more of an off white. It basically looked like it was covered in bathroom tiles.
We took a few days to relax at Manly beach and get a good base tan going before Thailand.

On the last day I witnessed an old fashioned form of Aussie punishment.
Sorry I couldn't chat for longer. This week has gone by too fast, I wish we had more time in Australia, but alas, our time is up. Off to the motherland, Thailand. Until then, Godspeed.

-David

Last Days in NZ, Off to Sydney!

My how time flies when you are having fun. We have been in Auckland for the past few days wrapping up our tour of New Zealand. While settling in the hostel room I met an interesting Finn named Pakka. He just graduated college and is doing some much needed travelling while also trying to find a job in web design. I asked him if he was going to the Blues rugby game the next day and he said he wasn't much of a rugby fan, and that he played American football while in highschool, odd. He seemed like a chill guy so we decided to go out for a beer. While at the pub watching and trying to understand an AUS vs. India cricket match he told me about the Finnish version of baseball. He began to describe the game. The pitcher stands by the batter and throws the ball straight up in the air, it has to land on a small circle underneath where he threw it to be fair. The bases are as follows, first base is where third would be in the U.S., second was where first is in the US, and third was somewhere in left field. I called BS but he insisted that everyone in Finland plays this game. I checked and sure enough: Pesäpallo(Finnish Baseball). Also, Pekka says the best way for foreigners to speak Finnish with the correct accent is "to speak as though you were, you know, a retarded person."The next day we went to the first Auckland Blues rugby game of the season. They play in the Super 14 league which is a profesional league comprised of teams from NZ, Australia, and South Africa. There was a bit of rain during warmups but the sun broke thru for what turned out to be some very competetive and exciting rugby. A great experience to see live 15's at one of the highest levels of play. The Blues were down 11-8 at halftime but came out to start the second half with a full head of steam.

The Blues' lit up the second half with great backline play. Blues and All Black winger Joe Rokocoko (I like saying that name) had an amazing run for a score that ended with a dive across the touch-line (conversion kick shown). A lot of great backline plays, big kicks, and de-cleaters. Blues beat the Chiefs 32-14 after fulltime. We had a blast celebrating with the locals during and after the game. As the locals say, Go the Blues!!!
That about ends our stay in New Zealand. Tomorrow we are off to the real land down under, Australia. Until then, Cheers!

-dc

Abel Tasman, Gradually back to Auckland

Greetings again from the land down under. Where did we leave off? Oh yes, we left the Monteith's brewery and arrived in Abel Tasman National Park that night. It is located on the Northern tip of the South island. A land once inhabited by the Maoris, it was fought over many bloody battles with the Brits, became logging and mining land, and has since been turned into a national park by local conservationists. It is a large Northern point that forms a giant Northeast facing bay with many tiny bays. The beaches are considered secluded since the only way to access them is by foot. This is a half truth since there are water taxis that are constantly buzzing by and also those pesky kayakers! I took a day hike about two hours up the coast until I found a nice couch-shaped rock to park on. Soaked in the scene for a bit and headed back in. Very relaxing
The next day we drove toward Picton where the ferry terminal is located. We started playing a few friendly games of hearts while crossing the ferry to the North island. During a crucial point in one of the matches I accidentally dumped the queen of spades on mark when he was preventing Kevin from shooting the moon. We all felt really really bad about this so we let Mark win that game. We all made a concerted effort to let mark win the proceeding game by allowing him to shoot the moon three times in one game. Running hearts tally, Kevin: 568, Greg: 498, Mark: 493, Nick: 533, Me: 577. The game is over at 10,000 points.
We spent the night in Wellington. I spent today at Lake Taupo and remenisced about past times spent here with the family.

I leave you all with a sight worthy of notice.

Cheers!!!
-dc

Monteith's Brewery Tour, Start of Abel Tasman Park

We stopped in an old Maori mining town on the west coast called Greymouth. It was a quiet mining town and it was also the home of the origional West Coast Monteith's Brewery! We stayed at Duke's hostel and talked to some Israeli backpackers about the brewery tour over a couple pints of Monteiths. The tour of the historic brewery was at 11:30am and cost $15 so we all decided that it would be a fun and informative thing to do on our way out the next morning. I asked everyone if I could be the designated driver for the day, after a while they reluctantly said okay. huzzah!

Monteith's has a long history of brewing on the west coast of the south island. They began in the 1800's as the West Coast brewing company and eventually changed their name to the name of the origional brewmaster Monteith. They have won a lot of awards in NZ and Australia. And now, like many local microbrews, they are owned and distributed by Heineken.

The tour of the brewery was pretty standard for a brew tour. A couple of oddities. There is a regulation on NZ beer where it must be either 4% or 5% alcohol. Nothing to be found in the IPA department. Also, they open ferment their beer as you can see in the picture. I know you are all thinking, wont that contaminate the beer? The answer, no. Apparently the fermentation process builds a thick layer of CO2 on the top of the brew. This layer of CO2 created by the yeast acts as a microbial death zone for any foreign and potentially harmful bacteria.

During the kegging and bottling section of the tour they showed us a cross section of a keg. I've never seen one before, thought it was cool.














Afterwards they gave us tasters of all seven of their brews: a pilsen, origional, black, summer, lemon lime, red, and gold. They even let us pour our own final brew. Oh the aspirations of becomming a brewmaster!!!
Don't worry, the pose was just for show. I handed out all my beers to the rest of my peers. NZ has a no tolerance driving policy.







We drove about 4 hours north to the hidden beaches of Abel Tasman National Park. We were going to embark on some day hikes today, but alas, it is pouring rain hence the reason why I'm surfing the net and not enjoying the beaches.

Cheers!!!

David

Glacier Country and Northward

We left Queenstown a few days ago. Before we left we took the gondola up above the town for some magnificent views and more importantly, the luge! At the top of the Remarkables Mountains there is land luge park. We bought tickets up and for the luge and rode down it a few times. It is basically a downhill motorless gocart track with banked turns and a handbrake.
We took off that evening and began our drive north up the westcoast. "Its curvasity is directly proportional to its beauty"- Kevin. We camped out a night in a nice secluded patch of grass that we found. We usually follow a camp, hostel, camp, hostel type of pattern. Housing averages out to about $10 NZD a night. The next day we drove to Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier was nice. It has receeeded much in the past 100 years. Franz Joseph Glacier was equally as massive. Both put the glaciers I saw at Glacier National Park, Montana to shame.




















Franz Joseph on Left. Fox Glacier on right

End of Dusky, Off to Queenstown

We made it out of the Dusky Track after nine days on the trail and over 122km tramped. Four out of the five that started survived, not too shabby. We were all pretty stoked to have been able to trek and live in such a beautiful place that few people get to experience. Twas a truly rewarding jouney.








We spent the night off the trail eating, showering, laundering, and being merry. The next day we drove a couple hours east to Queenstown, a very picturesque Tahoe like city. It was NZ's national independence day, Waitonga day. The day they became a British colony and ended the war with the Maoris. Coincidentally it was also Bob Marley's birthday. There was a quaint reggae festival in the park. There were a lot of hippies climbing trees and tight rope walking. We played some touch rugby with some local kiwis and enjoyed a few Steinlagers with them. Sweet as. That is where we leave off.

Cheers!!!

-dc

Loch Maree to Supper Cove, Dusky Sound

I order to get to Loch Maree, which is about at sealevel, we first had to summit a mountain range about 500meters higher than Lake Roe. Summiting this range meant climbing, descending, climbing, descending, and climbing again. Oh those rolling hills.

We arrived at the pass above Loch maree at about midday. The view was breathtaking, we could see the Dusky Sound and the ocean. We will be at the Dusky, right behind me, in a day.





So we were at 1000m and had to get down to 80m. The map showed the descent was around one kilometer. Pretty steep stuff. A lot of root climbs and rock climbs. Some sections had a chain to guide you. I'm glad to still have my knees and ankles after all that.














After the night in Loch Maree we headed west to Supper Cove, an arm of the Dusky Sound. We had little luck fishing there. The sandflys were rather nasty there as well.

Luckily there was a boat in the sound that two families had chartered. They were pulling cod and grouper left and right and they were gracious enough to lend us a couple. They also gave us some fruits, vegetables, and bread! Thanks Kiwis.

The rain came in that night meaning the trail back to Loch Maree would be flooded so we stayed an extra night at Supper Cove.

The extended stay gave us some extra time to make some important decisions. Mainly about Greg's feet. He developed awefully bad blisters on both his heals and basically could not walk. A bit of luck was on our side once again. The families from the charter boat were getting flown out by helicopter that day. Greg hitched a ride out with them. Bye Greg!

We returned to Loch Maree the next day and were on our way out of the Dusky

Halfway Hut to Lake Roe Hut

The trail to Halfway hut was a nice trail for the first ten minutes. After that, and until about eight days later it turned into a tramp. Basically there were markers on trees and a direction to follow. A light path was worn in but for the most part the path consisted of roots, rocks, mud, roots, mud, three-wire crossings, streams, roots, rocks and mud.

The first day to Halfway hut was not too bad, a good warm up for things to come. The huts were a nice thing to come to after a hard days' tramp. They were somewhat sealed, had bunk beds, potable water and an outhouse. I say somewhat sealed for it was here thst we first encountered our archnemesis-- the sandfly.

Sandflys are God's way of keeping humans from settling the Fiordlands. They are tiny mosquito/gnat type meanies that were everywhere since there was a lot of standing water. We had to cover all our exposed areas and stay in the huts at night.




The next day we headed towards Lake Roe. The trail was flat for the first half and then it climbed about 500 meters.
The views from Lake Roe were amazing! We were at a higher elevation so it was colder meaning very few sandflys.
This view was from a bench right by our hut.

















On the way out of Lake Roe hut in the morning. Headed toward Loch Maree

Dusky Track

We began the Dusky track sometime in late january and left the trail in early February. I'm not sure on exact dates but we were on the trail for nine days. Clicking on the trail map below will open an enlarged version. Our path of choice was the South to North route. We started with a boatride across Lake Hauroko, NZ's deepest lake, to the Hauroko Burn Hut.
My Dusky Track Photos