SKY DIVING

Today I finally got around to doing a skydive. I was woken up by someone's cellphone at 8AM and attempted to fall back asleep until 9AM. I got up, showered and had a Muesli Bar and some milk for breakfast and then headed out to check my e-mail and make some last minute phone calls before boarding the bus. 

The drive to Kerikeri took about 20 minutes. There was two other guys on the bus from my hostel one from Denmark and one from Australia. We picked up another Australian girl along the way who worked as a chute packer at the sky dive place. Upon arrival the two other guys got suited up for jump and I found out I would jumping on the second round. I hung around the little area adjacent to the hangar and played Scrabble on my iPod. Another guy showed up and wanted to do a jump so it was decided he was going to be going up with me. He was from Israel.

Time passed and we eventually saw the other two guys descending towards the ground. After they got back in I was given my harness and set up with that and headed out towards the plane. The plane ride up to 12,000 feet was very cozy. It was six people packed into a little Cessna (I think it was a Cessna 180 or a Cessna 185) for a twenty minute plane ride. My first feeling of "oh my god what am I doing" didn't come until I was sitting on the edge of the plane with the air blasting in my face and knowing that as soon as I felt the one rock forward from the tandem master I was going to be hurtling towards the ground. The first roll after falling from the plane just consisted of me yelling "HOOOOLLLYYY SHIIIIIIIT" as the pictures illustrate. That was the only really intense and scary part is the roll out of the plane. After that it is just 100% pure awesome (except how screwed up your ears get because of the rapid descent and rapid changes in pressure as a bi-product of that descent) unadulterated awesomeness. 

The free-fall lasts for approximately 45 seconds and you are traveling at roughly 200Km/h. After the free-fall portion the tandem master pulls the parachute and everything goes dead quiet. All you hear is the light sound of the wind in the canopy and your own breathing. The view from that height is amazing and I wish I could of brought a camera with me. 

After doing this tandem jump I am seriously considering doing the "A" Sky Diving License Course up here near the end of my trip if I have enough money left. The course is about $3,000CAD and consists of 25 jumps starting with a self deployed tandem and leading up to about a dozen solo jumps to hone your skills. Following the course I would be able to skydive solo anywhere in the world.

The video is now live on youtube. Enjoy!

Terrible Terrible Contest. Long Long Day.

Last night I decided to grab a drink with a few of my room mates and another friend. Unfortunately this turned rapidly into more than "a drink with a few of my roommates" when contest was offered with the prize of a free skydive. This seemed like a perfect opportunity because I'd been planning to go sky diving the next day anyways. The contest rules were very simple. For every six tap beers purchased you received one entry into the draw. Tap beer was only $4 a pint from 8-10 and the contest ended at 10:30 so it seemed like a perfect fit. I ended up getting through six before 10:30 and got my one entry and was set. It was challenging to drink the six beers because we were trying to play "Kings" with a dozen or so people who spoke varying degrees of English ranging from almost none to native speaker. This was not conducive to drinking six beers in two hours but the game feel apart after awhile and I did finish the beers in the time frame to get my entry. 

Had I stopped here everything probably would of been OK. Sadly this was not the case. I had two beers purchased for me by others and then I did something that even at the time after eight pints still seemed like a poor choice. I went and grabbed myself two rum and cokes for $10 and drank them. Shortly after that the bar was shutting down and we were getting ushered out and headed back to our rooms. 

This is where things start to get even more ridiculous. I went back to my room to grab my laptop so I could give Krystina a much deserved 4AM drunken phone call because she'd done that to me on more than one occasion. So I called and talked to her for two minutes and then headed back to my room.

Once I got back to my room several more poor decisions followed. In attempt to ward off any unpleasantness the following morning. Normally I just drink a bunch of water and call it a night. Unfortunately my water bottle had milk in it. So I followed up my 8 beers and 2 rum and cokes with about 750ml of milk and then discovered a 3/4 full bottle of powerade on the counter (no ideas who it belonged to but at the point I was at it seemed like fair game) which I proceeded to down. I then decided I should drink some water too so I filled my bottle and drank it. To update everyone on the score I have no had 8 pints of Export Gold, 2 Rum & Cokes, 3/4L of milk, 1/2L of Powerade and 1L of water. 

I don't remember anything after the water. I woke up in just my boxers on my bed but the wrong way (feet on pillow head at the foot of the bed) and not under the sheets. I also felt like absolute crap and had to go to the bathroom like crazy. I managed to jump down from the top bunk and not have my bladder explode and stumbled to the bathroom and jettisoned enough fluid that I almost had to flush twice. I wasn't feeling so hot so I went back to bed. An hour or so later arose once more to shower and attempt to start my day.

My original plan for the day had been to do a sky dive but I was in absolutely no condition to Sky Dive. After my shower I grabbed my laptop and went to check my e-mail. I was on my computer for about half an hour before I had to go throw up. I came back to my computer and was good for another hour or so and then threw up again. Following this I had some water and napped for a good two or three hours. I felt a bit better when I got up. I decided to eat some food. I managed to get through four pieces of toast with raspberry jam and felt a little bit better after this but still no where near 100%. Following this I spent the large majority of the day just sitting on the couch fighting off a tide of feelings of nausea culminating around five o'clock when I was sitting at the desk with my laptop closed and off controlling my breathing and afraid to move to unplug my charger. It took about five minutes (or seemed like it) to overcome the "I'm going to be sick" feeling and I quickly packed my laptop up and left the lounge. I met up with my room mates outside our dorm room and was feeling exceptionally better thanks to the fresh and now cool outdoor air. 

Initially I planned to make pasta but really wasn't feeling like cooking and it was their last night so I decided to go out with them for dinner. We went to place called "The Bonfire Bar" and all had burgers and chips. The burgers were massive and delicious and I ate it all despite once more feeling really sick near the end. Once more the feeling passed by the time we got back to the hostel bar. I grabbed some water to help settle my stomach as well as some gum and went back to the bar. We chatted and met some new people on the patio. Around ten we packed up and moved to the bar next door where more drinks were ordered (except me, I was taking the night off after my long day). We hung around there more drinks were had and at one point some really drunk guy who none of us knew came over high fived some of us and gave me a $5 bill and told me to buy myself a drink. Eventually moved to the bar next to that one to watch a pretty poor pole dancing competition. I ordered a drink (a glass of coke, which garnered an incredulous look from the girl at the bar that someone was clearly perfectly sober and ordering just a soda at 12:30 in the morning. I paid for my Coke using part of the $5 I got from random drunk guy at the previous bar. We hung around at this bar for about an hour I got myself another coke which the girl gave me for free - I was appreciative of this gesture. 

After the pole dancing competition was over and the numbers in the bar were thinning we decided to head back to the bar at our hostel but it was closing down. I grabbed my laptop and checked my e-mail and wrote this blog post. Now I am off to bed. Goodnight.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention I booked myself a skydive at the bar tonight. I expect I will be fully recovered tomorrow and a girl from the company was going around taking names so I figured it was a sign that I should finally get on it. I will be on a bus at 10AM (barely seven hour from now) on my way to Kerikeri to do a tandem jump. Expect a post about that late tomorrow.

Grocery Shopping...IN THE RAIN!

Today I took a risk and went to Woolworth's while there appeared to be a break in the rain. I stopped by a dairy on the way and grabbed some candy for the walk and proceeded to the store. I got to the store grabbed the stuff I needed and of course some stuff I probably didn't and headed back to the hostel. I kid you not within 50m of me leaving the sheltered awning in front of the store the skies opened up and unleashed watery fury on me and my groceries. The jacket kept my shirt try but my pants and the groceries got soaked. Fortunately nothing got ruined.

Here is what I grabbed this time:

• Milk 2L - $3.25
• Basil & Tomato Pasta Sauce 750ml x 2 - $5.76
• Coca-Cola 2.25L - $1.95
• Cadbury 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate 250g x 2 - $6.00
• 12 slices of processed cheddar - $3.99
• Berry Blast Yoghurt 1Kg - $4.48
• Raspberry Jam - $2.29
• Butter 250ml - $2.28

Grand Total: $30.00NZD ($20.45CAD)

I was pretty excited that after my one card savings of $1.87 I was sitting at exactly $30.00. It's little things that put a smile on my face. That's all for now. I had intended to go Sky Diving today but as I said the weather has been garbage so hopefully tomorrow is better.

It's alive!

My sunburn had finally began the peeling stage about two days ago. I expedited the process yesterday by going on that walk. The rubbing of my shirt and the straps on my backpack rubbing on my skin really sped up the peeling process. This morning I went to the bathroom to have a shower and took my shirt off. For a good 30 seconds following the removal of my shirt the bathroom looked like a snowglobe of dead skin. Good times. 

This is the best picture I could get.

Haruru Falls

Today I went for a walk to Haruru Falls. The walk was very scenic and very relaxing however I was not very prepared. It never occurred to me that maybe I should bring some food with me (I did have the sense to bring some water though). The walk was a lot longer than I expected. It ended up taking 5-6 hours to do the whole circuit from my hostel to the falls and back. I was pretty exhausted when I got back but got some good pictures out of it. Enjoy!

The bridge into the Mangrove Forest

The Boardwalk through the Mangrove Forest

The Haruru Falls

A random bird.

Walking down the trail.

About the Kiwi Bird

A palm tree. Hooray!

A restaurant inside a boat.

Beeeeeeach

More shopping. Trying to move away from instant noodles and Easy Mac!

I went out to get some fruit today at the grocery store and decided that I should get some food while I'm there. My ultimate goal being to move away from instant noodles and Easy Mac & Cheese (I can't find the normal boxed stuff ). As you can see from the list I grabbed some pasta ingredients and some eggs so I can do fried eggs for breakfast. Although I forgot to get anything to grease the frying pan with so I may have to run and grab that tomorrow. Now for the list...

• Vegetable Spiral Noodles 375g - $2.25
• Cooking & Salad Oil (100% pure vegetable oil) 500ml - $2.28
• Tomatoe & Basil Pasta Sauce 700ml - $2.88
• Chocolate Covered Mueseli Bars 12 pack - $4.49
• Coca-Cola 2.25L - $1.95
• Ribbon Pasta 500g - $1.25
• Molenburg Bread - $3.49
• Six Eggs - $1.85
• Bananas 1.143Kg - $3.28
• Kiwi Fruit 1KG - $3.96
• Kelloggs Crunch Honey Corn Flakes - $6.44

Total Cost: $34.12NZD ($23.01)

The weather seems to be improving so hopefully my sunburn will be healed by Friday or Saturday so I can dawn a jump suit and sky dive from 12,000 ft which will yield a blog post infinitely more exciting than my grocery lists.

Shopping Day...for after sun lotion!

Today I made the trek to Woolworth's to purchase some groceries and after sun to treat the ridiculous sunburn on my arms, face, back and stomach. I also needed to buy some more band-aids as I've used almost all the ones in my first-aid kit on my toe. Anyways without further adieu here is the list...

• Milk 2L - $4.48
• After Sun Lotion w/Aloe Vera (150ml) - $8.99
• Coca-Cola 1.5L Bottle x2 - $3.00
• Lynx Shower Gel - $5.29
• Yoghurt 1Kg - $3.69
• Kraft Easy Mac Four Pack - $3.59
• Beef 2 Minute Noodles Five Pack - $2.29
• Band-aid 20 pack - $3.25

Total: $34.58 ($23.54CAD)

I also spent $1NZD ($0.68CAD) on those little sugared coke bottle candies on the way to Woolworth's and $1.80NZD ($1.23CAD) on a sugar doughnut on the way back. Hopefully this stuff will help me keep my food costs down for the next little bit.

I will close out with some greasy and delicious Fish 'N' Chips.

If you can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at?

Don't wear sunglasses and relax on the beach. End of post.

North Trip - Cape Reinga, Te Paki Sand Dunes, 90 Mile Beach

Yesterday I went on one of the activities included in my Kiwi Experience pass. I went up to the Northern most part of New Zealand to see a Kauri forest, a light house at the northern most tip of New Zealand where the Tasman and the Pacific meet. In addition to this we drove along 90 mile beach and went sand boarding on the Te Paki sand dunes. I will write about all these wonderful things in the order they happened.

The morning started at 6AM when I got up and showered and got all my stuff ready for the day. I made sure I put on sunscreen and dug out my sunglasses and such so I would be prepared. I was sporting tropical looking shorts and a coolmax shirt. I headed out into the windy overcast outdoors around 7AM to wait for the bus. I boarded the bus without issue at 7:15AM and we were on our way. Around 9:30 we hit a cafe to grab food for breakfast and lunch. I bought a 1L bottle of coke, a warm bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, a corned beef and pickle sandwich and a donut. I was set food-wise for breakfast and lunch. We hung around at the cafe for a bit and ate our food and eventually departed for the Kauri forest.

When we arrived at the Kauri forest it was raining pretty hard and against my better judgement I brought my camera out anyways in an attempt to take pictures. Unfortunately it was very challenging to get any decent photos in the forest as the lens I have with me is way too long (45mm-216mm) so you will have to make do with what I got. I was only really outside ten minutes in the forest and I still managed to get pretty wet as did my camera but it dried off quickly in the bus.

The Forest.

The Kiwi's are not big fans of destructive pests. If it doesn't belong they will kill it off.

Next on our agenda after leaving the Kauri forest we headed further north to the Te Paki sand dunes. The sand dunes are about 5Km inland and around 100m at the highest points. The reason we went to them was to go sand-boarding down them. You walk yourself up the dunes (not for the faint of heart) and at the top you position yourself on your board and then you go hurdling down the hill. The sand was really wet as a result of all the rain which made for really fast sand boarding. The driver guide said it was the best conditions he'd seen in three years doing the tour. He pegged the average speed for the people (like myself) who were really giving it at about 70-80Km/h. I came out of it with only minor injuries I bruised my knee, and took most of the skin off the top of my left big toe as well as minor amounts of skin off a few other toes. We stayed at at the dunes for about an hour and I did 7 or 8 runs down. I was the first and  last person to go. I finished my last run and put my board back on the bus and hopped. Once we were all back on the bus the inside of the bus looked like a beach it was pretty crazy.

The Te Paki Sand Dunes (not my photo)

The trail we left up the dune we were riding down.

Following the dunes we headed down to this little beach for lunch. I ate my sandwich on the bus because it was pretty cold and windy outside. I did go outside and snap a few photos of the scenery and of the birds that were flocking about trying to eat peoples lunches.

The Bay.

A gull.

Another gull.

After lunch was wrapped up we piled back on the bus and headed for Cape Reinga - the most sacred land in all of New Zealand. We walked the 45 minute or so trail down the cape and around the lighthouse. The view was pretty spectacular although it wasn't super obvious where the two bodies of water met. Regardless I got some cool photos.

View from Cape Reinga

I can't imagine what idiot prompted this sign.

Cape Reinga Light House

90 Mile beach was our next stop. This is a beach that is also a public highway. The speed limit for driving on the beach is 100Km/h. As you can imagine the on and off ramps onto and off a beach are pretty crazy. We drove along the beach as the wind and rain and the spray from the water hammered the bus. It was a really cool experience.

Our tour bus parked on the beach.

A shell sitting in the sand on the beach.

The beach highway was our last stop of the day before heading back down. On the way back we stopped at this big store called "The Ancient Kauri Kingdom" where they sell stuff carved out of Kauri tree wood. Because it's all hand carved it's all ridiculously expensive so I didn't buy anything. Some of the highlights were a Mandolin that was priced at $55,000USD ($67,000CAD), a bed priced at $15,000NZD ($10,136.13CAD). Even something simple like a cutting board was $75NZD ($50.65CAD). There was lots of cool stuff to look at though. The stairway from the first to second floor was carved inside a tree. I can now say I have been inside a tree. Pretty exciting stuff.

The last stop of the day was for dinner at Mangonui Fish 'n' Chips which apparently has the best Fish 'n' Chips in all of New Zealand. It's located right on the pier and the fish they use is bought directly from the fishermen. The chips were very good but not the best I've ever had but the fish was amazing. The meal cost me $14.80NZD ($9.99CAD) for two fish and one order of chips along with two things of tomatoe sauce and two things of tartare sauce. It was a great meal and definately worth the $10CAD it cost me.

Delicious greasy fish 'n' chips!

I'll wrap this post up with a shot of the scenery we drove by and a picture of a cow that was on the wrong side of the fence and all the other cows were looking at him.

A walk around Paihia

Today I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and wander into town and see the sights. I also decided it was a good opportunity to take pictures as I know how much everyone loves pictures.

I checked out what touristy things I had available to me such as parasailing, speed boating, snorkeling, sky diving etc. I even looked into taking diving lessons. While I was at the wharf I stopped by the Submarine Sandwich Cafe that is advertised all over the hostel. I got a discount because I was on the Kiwi Experience Bus. It cost me $9NZD ($6.15CAD for a wrap and a bottle of coke. I got a wrap because they were out of sub bread.

All in all it was another good day up north. I had instant noodles for dinner and bought a big bottle of coke so I could stop buying the little ones.

The wharf.

A bee in a flower.

Flowers.

More Flowers.

The Beach.

An Island.

Out of Auckland...finally!

I finally got myself out of Auckland and am now in Paihia in the Bay of Islands in Northern New Zealand. It's pretty cool. It is much much quieter than Auckland which is pleasant change. I am planning to stay here for two weeks or so.

My trip to Paihia on the Kiwi Experience began at 7:15AM this morning. My morning however started at 4AM because one of my Irish roommates who stumbled in drunk at 3:30AM had a MAJOR snoring problem so I just got up and showered and went downstairs and chilled with Mike, Seth and Jade. I made a point of packing all my stuff the day before so checking out was easy and painless. It was really nice to finally get out of ACB.

The bus ride up to Paihia took about 4 hours. We stopped for food about 1 1/2 hours in at this nice little cafe. I had a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and a hot chocolate. After our half our stop we finished off the trip to Paihia.

The new hostel I am staying at is $7 cheaper per night than the one in Auckland if you book three nights at a time. It cost me $147NZD ($100.45CAD) at Base Paihia versus the $189 ($129.15CAD) it would cost me at Auckland Base. I opted to take the BBQ dinner they offer here for $12NZD ($8.20CAD) which gets you a "steak", a sausage, salad and baked cheese potatoes. It also got me a pint of eXport Gold. It was definately worth the $12NZD. I really enjoyed it. I ended up seeing three of my roommates at the BBQ and ate with them and then wandered around the town with them for a bit before we all went to bed. It was a good first night.

My roommates at this new place on the first night consists of four english guys and three english girls. Here are some photos of my room and the hostel.

The entrance to the hostel.

The bar at the hostel.

The dorm building at the new hostel.

My bed in my new dorm room.

My dorm room.

Our kitchen. Can't cook in it though. Stove doesn't work. It's just for food storage.

The bathroom. Hooray!