The one where I'm in Australia again

G'day!

After seriously considering extending my New Zealand trip, in the end I decided to follow through on my original plan to head over here for New Year's Eve.

Thanks to the lack of any available beds anywhere near Sydney, the persistence of Becca and Brian, and the generosity of their friend Jenny's friend Corinna (and the fact that Corinna didn't realize I'm from the States), I've got a couch all my own for a coupla nights.

So far, I've spent a coupla days wandering the city, which seems like...a city. It's much smaller than I thought, but it could still take me a couple more to see all the highlights. Right now I'm at the famous Bondi beach, which is, uh, underwhelming.

My plans for the rest of my time in Australia are mostly tentative: I'll stay in Sydney until Tuesday or Wednesday (and watch some fireworks along the way), then maybe head over to the Blue Mountains for the rest of the week. Friday I'll leave for Canberra to play in an Ultimate tournament next weekend, assuming there's still room for me. I'll be in Melbourne roughly January 16-28 to hang around the Australian Open and see some Laura Veirs shows.

Other than that, probably some combination of traveling the coast from Melbourne to Adelaide, heading up to Alice Springs/Uluru/the Outback, maybe down to Tasmania, maybe something else someone tells me I should do. I'll make my way back to Sydney to fly off to Africa in mid-February.

Sometime in the very near future, maybe the next rainy day, I'll spend some time catching up on my backlog of posts and loading some of my ~1000 pictures or so from New Zealand (and setting up some favourites so only the diehards among you need to look at ~1000 pictures). In the meantime, I hope your holidays, whatever they were, went well. And if you want to celebrate New Year's with me, most of you may have to remember to start pretty early.

Hasta,
sg

The one where I am alive and well

Hey, sorry for the dearth of posts. I've been busy, and it's been good.

I'm now in Queenstown, New Zealand, but very briefly. Tomorrow morning I leave for a 10-day hiking tour, starting here and ending in Christchurch:

This safari takes you to areas of New Zealand seldom visited by other travellers. It starts with 4 days hiking and kayaking in Fiordland National Park. We then head to the Catlins, famous for its beautiful beaches and abundant wildlife - Hector's dolphins, New Zealand sea lions and yellow-eyed penguins. The Dunstan Trail is an old goldmining route that takes us across the Central Otago plateau. Then it's on to the Mount Cook region to view our highest mountain. In South Canterbury we hike to an old musterer's hut.

I'm scheduled to head to Sydney very shortly thereafter. Hey, by the way, HELP! Do any of you know anyone in Sydney on whose floor or sofa I might sleep for a couple of days...? Say, any time period between Dec 28 and Jan 5 or so? That would kinda help me a lot right now...

When I get a chance, I've got some posts to write, though it might be a coupla weeks before you actually see them. But I've got good notes and lots of pictures:
- Staying in a hostel
- Abel Tasman Park kayaking and hiking and boat sleeping
- Glacier hiking
- The coolest place I've ever been, and how I wound up there with a real cutie and Truesdale's roommate

Unfortunately, that's all for now. (But I'm serious about needing a place in Sydney...)

Happy (C)han(n)uk(k)a(h) all. And, if I don't get a chance to talk to you before then, have a Merry Christmas, a Joyous Kwanzaa, and, most importantly, a Happy Festivus!

-sg

The one where the best was less than the best

The Tongariro Crossing is called the best one day walk in New Zealand.

From the NZ Department of Conservation website:

The Tongariro Crossing track passes over varied and spectacular volcanic terrain. In the presence of active volcanoes you can experience some of Tongariro National Park’s special gifts. A cold mountain spring, lava flows, an active crater, steam vents, emerald-coloured lakes and magnificent views combine to make this an enjoyable and memorable trip.

So I wanted to walk it.

(And for you Lord of the Rings fans, (ahem, K), the walk traverses the areas filmed as Mordor and one of the volcanoes you pass was Mt Doom.)

I was running a bit late in the morning so I jogged/ran from my hostel to the depot where I was supposed to meet the bus. I made it and we took off. First stop: my hostel.

Anyway, I was first off the bus and onto the trail (7:25am) so I could avoid the crowds--it's a hugely popular walk and the busses pretty much line up. It was really foggy and hard to see much. I decided to take pictures every 15 minutes of whatever I could see to have a better record of what I expected to be one of the best days I'll ever have hiking.

As we (by an hour or so in, I'd caught up with some others) were starting the hard bit the weather rolled in. A heavy drizzle mostly, which wasn't too bad (other than the realization that my raincoat wasn't keeping out the rain).

But by the time we got to the steepest section, it was not good. By which I mean REALLY BAD. The winds were maybe 40mph or so, gusting much higher. Visibility was about 50 yards. It was sleeting. At one point I found a big rock to hide under while I dug out my gloves (thank god I got gloves...). I put them on and frost immediately formed. I never even saw the sign for the side trek I was going to take to the peak of Mt Tongariro.

It cleared up a bit on the other side of the ridge, but it was still pretty yucky along the Emerald Lakes/Blue Lake region. Which looks fantastic in the postcards.

So I was using the alarm on my cell phone to tell me my 15 minute increments to take pictures, which I hadn't taken in a while because of the weather. But my raincoat, remember, she is not keeping out the rain. So the phone started going nuts--it, inside my pocket, kept beeping and turning to camera mode and taking pictures. I had to finally take the battery out. And the camera, that stopped too. No beeping, no nothing.

Finally, after we passed the North Crater we could see what we came for: mountains, with big lakes set in the background (Lake Taupo, that smaller one I don't remember the name of) against a fierce land. I had views of the lakes and Mt Rotopaunga during the entire descent to the Ketehai hut.

Without the side trip to the peak I had some extra time so I ate lunch in the hut. Then, we descended to a rain forest for the rest of the trip back to the parking lot.

I bought a new camera in Wellington, so pictures will resume shortly. What I do have from Tongariro will be up in a couple of days...

Good: The sights of the mountains with Lake Taupo in the distance
Not: I no camera for most of it
Good: What I could see of Emerald and Blue Lakes
Not: I don't like windy sleet
Good: The volcanic activity in the Ketehai Hot Springs
Not: there were lots of people and no animals (well, I saw one bird)
Good: The running commentary with Amanda and her husband as we jockeyed for position.
Bad: My raincoat didn't work
Good: That weird plant where the leaves line up on each branch/stem (see the 4th one on this guy's site).
Bad: Irish eyes smile. My ankles weep and moan.
Good: I saw snow. And in December at that!

Joy,
sg

The one where I swooped

And zorbed. And flew. And rode in a really fast boat.

So, New Zealand. I wound up not renting a car. It'd probably be easier, but
- the economic advantages are less clear when travelling alone
- I signed up for a tour that will cover basically my last 10 days here. This would have shortened the rental period (higher rates) and changed the drop off location from Christchurch to Queenstown (extremely higher rates). Instead, I've got a bus pass for something like 50 hours of travel.

After Auckland I went north up to Paihia. From there, I took a full day bus tour up to Cape Reinga (essentially the tip of the island). It's where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific ocean. Which would have been neat, but it was pouring rain and really windy while we were there so we couldn't see much. We got there by driving the tour bus a significant distance along the Ninety Mile Beach, a 55 mile long beach on the north western coast. That was neat. We also stopped at gift shops and stuff, which was not so neat. I think it'll be the last of my group-on-a-bus tours, especially if I don't go with a friend.

After I left I came down to Rotorua. In the morning, walking into town, I came across a farmers market with a stand selling really cheap Roti with Chicken curry. I went, then went back twice. As I left the market I entered a park--apparently Rotorua is one of the big areas of thermal activity, cause there were bunches of thermal pools in the park, some really hot and roped off and some more suitable for human contact.

But I really came to Rotorua to see the Agrodome, a working sheep farm/agricultural expo/adventure experience site. Really.

I was gonna zorb, but I ran into Diane and Hannah (from Wales and England, or maybe the other way), who convinced me to do it all.

- I swooped. That is, I got into a hang gliding harness, had a crane lift me up to 130 feet, then pulled a ripcord and swung like a pendulum.
- I flew. That is, I was lifted in the air by a giant wind tunnel blowing me up at 110 mph.
- I agrojetted. That is, I rode in a 450-horsepower, jet-propelled 13-foot Race Boat that went from 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds on a small, man made course.
- And I zorbed. That is, I rode down a zig-zag hill inside what is essentially a 10 foot tall padded water balloon.

And it was good.

Rotorua pictures are up.

Joy,
sg

The one where I got my blog back.

I got my blog back.

The one where Sub Zero played at worlds

Pictures are available at my picture site.

The one where I can't read kanji

In which: I sat down at my favourite internet cafe in Perth and went to write about something or other.

In which: The language setting on Blogger was Japanese.

In which: Trying to figure out how to change it to English, I deleted my own blog.

In which: I've asked tech support for help to recover the missing entries, but if anyone happened to save them they should send me a copy.

In which: I've now moved on to Auckland, New Zealand.

In which: Today's plan is to maybe rent a car, get a new SIM card for the phone, buy a guidebook, figure out where to go tomorrow, and maybe introduce myself to the woman from the 6am airport shuttle if I run into her again.

chao,
sg