On to a new frontier

WOOHOO!!!! It's consistently warm and sunny outside!!!! New Zealand was definitely great, but a little on the chilly and rainy side. Not here in beautiful Australia. I think the temp today in Melbourne will be in the low 30's (upper 80's to 90's). http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/ASXX0075.html

I digress....

My last week and a half in New Zealand was fairly mild mannered. So in order of events I will just post pictures and the captions will hopefully outline my activities.

Flying back to Wellington where I took a train out to Masterton. I stayed back at Tricia's house and did some work around her house and hung out with Andrew's brother, Alastair.


Alastair and I went out to Castlepoint to catch a few waves. This spot here is called the gap we surfed a couple of miles back up the coast. I had half a bar of wax to coat my entire board....didn't work so well.


A view from near the top of the bluff



Looking over the other side at Christmas Bay. Alastair likes to surf this spot but you have to hike up and over the ridge with your board and most of his friends aren't too keen with that.


Nice view of the gap and the lighthouse in the background (the little white thing on the rocks)


Alastair's board was attacked by this tree limb before we were even able to get in the water. The waves weren't very good that day and combined with my lack of grip on the board I didn't fare to well.


We drove back over to castlepoint and here's another view.


Then next day we drove to a different surf break at the mouth of a river. In order to get there we had to drive over a sheep ranch. Even though it doesn't look it, this is a pretty steep road.


A view through the drivers side


Looking down the other side and getting our first view of the break


We were wondering where all the sheep were.


The waves looked a lot more promising from the top of the hill, but the tide was low and that was affecting the size. Matt got in the water right away while Alastair and I walked along the rocks and harvested Paua. It was amazingly easy. Any of the guys back in California who've gone for abalone would have been very, very jealous. I think it took us about 20 minutes to collect 12 or so. The limit here is 10 per person per day. The waves did pick up some and I had some nice rides.


Christmas day, Andrew, Alastair, and I went out for a round of 9 holes. I had a couple good holes and several bad holes....I guess being in another country wasn't going to do any wonders for my golf game.


Back at the ranch and Alistair is treating his daughter Bella to a bicycle ride




Ahh...Christmas dinner outside. And quite the good meal. Beef, salad, chicken, avocados...mmmm. A good time was had by all, I even got a couple small gifts including a little black New Zealand flag, but I left it at Andrew and Erin's because the stick would have been sure to break during my travels.


Back in Wellington, Andrew and Erin were kind enough to let me stay at there place even though there were heading to Australia on the 27th. I walked into town a couple of times and ended up sticking around until the 30th. The above picture is the capitol building, called the beehive for obvious reasons, and generally disliked by most Kiwis.


Wandered onto another cemetery, this one was right next to the freeway.



This is similar to the bus that I took on my overnight trip up to Raglan a week and a half earlier. It's a monster of a bus with seating upstairs and down.

On the 30th I took another bus up to the town of Taupo. I'd tried to get accommodations in or near Mt. Maunganui where some friends of my grandparents lived, but all the hostels were pretty well booked up because new years, so I ended up in Taupo. I had to stay there until the 2nd...the hostel staff had the day off on the 1st as a recovery from the night before. I really didn't do much of anything in Taupo except sleep and read. I did manage to pick up a different pair of sandals, but they're so cheap I doubt they'll last me through Australia.

Lake Taupo.


NYE revellers at the hostel. It was raining most of the night so several people stuck around instead of walking into town.


Yeah, I'm not sure.


Again, not sure.


Everyone gathered on the balcony for the midnight firework display and to welcome in the new year....a full 21 hours before any of you on the West Coast.


OOOOOOhhhhh........AAAAAhhhhhhh. Actually the firework display was pretty good and they staged it from a spot just a few blocks from the hostel, which was sort of surprising. I would have thought it would have been nearer the lake.


She gave out piggy back rides to all of us....ok, she didn't, but that would have been fun.


I'm not a think as you drunk I am. I'm not sure what that other guy is drinking. Hopefully it wasn't just straight orange juice, that shit will kill you.



Oh look....Holsteins. http://www.holsteins.net/


Arrived in Auckland around 4pm and check into a hostel right in downtown. Turned out to be the crappiest bed I paid for in New Zealand. People were taking showers at 2 in the morning in the bathroom right next door and there was absolutely no sound insulation. That coupled with the pipes that ran from upstairs which made it sound like water was gushing into the room all night made for very little sleep...and I had to get up at 5 am to get to the airport.


Sky tower. They have some sort of bungy jump thing from the top but it looked lame because it was a controlled descent.


Random Auckland picture.


My fearless steed to Melbourne.

So I thought I'd throw in a couple, few picture from Melbourne while I'm at it.



The city from the air. Melbourne has about 4 million people living in/around it. That's more than all of New Zealand Australia has been in a severe drought most of the year and there was a very distinct layer of bush fire smoke a little higher up. Nasty stuff. A local told me at one point they were having trouble with fire alarms going off in some of the taller buildings do to the smoke outside the buildings. Luckily it's not too bad right now.


2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon and the beach at St. Kilda is pretty crowded. Granted it's still the holiday season but I can imagine this place must be a madhouse on the weekends.


Kite boarding appears to be very big around here. At one point I counted 20 guys out at once and someone mentioned that it was a slow day. If I'm still here through the weekend and the winds are good I'll have to check it out again. I'm sure there must be heaps of conflicts. I was seriously considering giving it a shot but my left knee has been bothering me since Wellington. Hopefully it clears up soon as I'd like to at least get some surfing in while I'm here in Aussie.



Oh yeah, random picture from the computer I used to post all these other pictures. These people are now world famous (or at least slightly more famous)

So I think I'll stay here (Melbourne) for a couple more nights and then either head to Tasmania, if I can find a cheapish flight or head up towards Sydney. I might also rent a car for a few days and do some random exploring but I'm not sure yet. Adios.