Friday 31 August 2012

From Coast to Coast


For mid-semester break the infamous English Rob and I teamed up with two amazing Kiwis (Jess and Ben) that were more than happy to show us tourists around the South Island. They had planned on doing a train ride from Christchurch (East coast) to Greymouth (West coast) for the holiday. Fortunately they didn't mind us hooligans tagging along for the adventure.
Moeraki Boulders

Our journey started Saturday August 25th leaving Dunedin at 7:30am heading towards Christchurch. The dreadful 4.5 hour car ride in Ben's car that could maybe fit three people comfortably (we had 5) was eased through the multiple stops along the way. Our first stop was at the Moeraki Boulders just outside of Dunedin. They're massive spherical boulders that were formed on the ocean floor millions of years ago that now sit on the coastline from the erosion (as the Kiwis say it was Buzzay!). We then stopped at the Rakaia Salmon for a pit-stop. Rob and I tried to climb it, but we weren't successful. At the next stop, I made the worst decision that I have made since being in New Zealand. Both Rob and I each bought a 1kg bag of cookies from the Cookie Time Factory. Ben bought 8Kg but was smart enough not to open any bags during the trip, Rob and I on the  other hand weren't so lucky...

Seemed like a good idea
Climbing the Salmon

















Christchurch Shops



We finally made it to Christchurch and spent the rest of the day travelling around the city. Ben was so excited to show us Littleton Tunnel which is the largest driving tunnel in New Zealand (I guess tunnels are a big thing here), we stopped at Sumner beach  and then went to the city center for lunch. We had lunch at the Red Zone in Christchurch (shops that were made out of storage containers). The city is still in ruins after the earthquake that happened in February 2011, so it was interesting to see the city center today. Ben's Grandma's Sister was more than happy to let us four stay the night. She had a homemade stew for tea waiting for us when we arrived (tea = dinner... very weird). It was an early night, as usual we watched the rugby game (New Zealand beat Australia so it was a good win!) and headed off to bed.
Rebuilding the City
Ben's Grandmas Sisters House!

Waiting for the Train










Sunday was an early morning wake up call but it was worth it with breakfast already made for us! We took the Transalpine Train that left the Darfeild station at 9am heading towards Greymouth. Only an hour onto the train I had already lost my wallet; what a great start to the adventure... The 4 hour train ride was a lot of fun though, traveling through some amazing places (Apparently we went through some spots where Lord of the Rings was filmed). The train only stopped in two towns Springfield which unfortunately had no relation to the Simpsons, and Arthur's Pass where I ended up taking photos for half the train in front of the Arthur's Pass sign... I guess they thought I was the freaking photographer for that stop.

Ben's parents met us in Greymouth, and took us to the Speights Ale house for lunch. I had my first New Zealand pie! Which is very important because they are a Kiwi favourite. Ben's amazing parents paid for our lunch and gave us a car to travel around in for the rest of the time being on the West coast. You couldn't ask for anything better! Such amazing people.






Feeding the Eels
Our first stop on the West coast was a little town called Hokitika (say that 10 times fast) saw the beach their and went to a Kiwi Bird center. We got to feed 2m long eels that where around 100 years old, they where disgusting. Rob and Ben forced me to feed them... Afterwards we got to see the Kiwi Bird! They're endangered and nocturnal so its very difficult to see one in nature. Leaving the Kiwi center we traveled up the West coastal roads towards Westport; stopping at Punakaiki for the pancake rocks. It started to rain so I literally ran the trail taking quick snapshots of random rocks! We reached Westport where Ben's parents have another house! After watching a terrible movie, it was another early night.

Monday morning Rob and I got up and went to the grocery store. Went the complete wrong way and got lost in the town that literally has two main roads... We had to ask someone how to get to the store. Our first stop that morning was where the Tasman Sea meets the Buller River. From there we traveled up the Karamea and stopped on the beach for lunch. We saw the Limestone caves (went barefoot Kiwi style for that one) and got lost in the caves with only a little torch light between Rob and I. Thank goodness for the glow-worms. Heading out, Ben let me drive the right handed manual diesel truck around the parking lot, seeing how there where no other cars around (Highlight of the trip! haha) That night we had Westports best Fish and Chips and both Rob and I had both officially finished our 1Kg bags of Cookie Time (I'm not sure to be proud or disgusted by this).
Half the road is missing...

Kiwi As





I SPY - A Seal










Tuesday was our "Lazy Day" which consisted of eating pies, drinking beer, and enjoying the sun! We traveled to a Seal colony and saw the Denniston lookout that overlooks the coatline along Westport. On the way back home we stopped at the super market for more Speights (of course) and I drove home! Must have been less than a kilometer down one road but is just crazy driving from the right side of a car on the left side of the road! That night we all planned to experience the West coast pub life but none of us made it out of the house. Guess I'll never know how the pubs are on the west side...
Long way from home


Wednesday we cleaned up the house and had to catch a bus from Westport back down to Greymouth (In town Rob bought another case of Speights for the bus/train rides). We took the Inner-city bus to Greymouth, had the lunch of champions: Subway and boarded the train. Our first thoughts were to crack a beer which was definitely not a smart choice by the way the conductor explained to us not to open any more. And if we didn't cause enough trouble Rob couldn't find his train ticket and I'm not sure if they were serious or just didn't like us but apparently we would've had to get off the train if he couldn't find it... I was up for the adventure! We met some crazy Australians on the train that gave us some pointers for our January Australia trip! (Basically warned us about the saltwater crocs, snakes, and jellyfish - Can't wait!). We spent Wednesday night at Ben's Grandma's sisters again with just the best hospitality. I left my wallet there, thank goodness.


We took off from Christchurch Thursday morning, stopped at Cookie Time again (felt so sick going in there, it will be a long time before I eat another cookie) and took the Inland Scenic route. We stopped at a river where Rob and I went swimming. Little did we know the river was flowing from a glacier, so it was the coldest swim of my life!



Asides from the Cookie Time, the worst part of this trip was making it back to my empty messy flat back in Dunedin. With only half the mid-semester break done, I now have time to get some work done, plan some trips and burn off the 1kg of Cookie Time.

Thursday 23 August 2012

Living Young, Wild and Free!

So this is definitely either one of the coolest things or the stupidest things that I have ever done in my entire life! If you have not read the "Living Dunedin Style" post, Id suggest reading that first.

I never thought that going to the gym would have ever got me involved in what happened post-gym. I saw my buddy Liam in the gym and the conversation went like this:

Liam:  "I picked up a raft from the Salvation Army on the weekend. Was thinking of rafting the Lei..."

Jordan:"I AM IN!"

Little did I know this raft was literally a pool toy that fit a maximum of 215lbs. It was perfect! We found a kayak paddle and decided to do a couple test runs. They didnt go so well for us...


First time we attempted it we hit a small patch of rapids right away, spun around and instantly flipped. Smashing on all the rocks flowing through this dreadful river. Barely getting out of the current we figured our weight wasn't distributed correctly in the boat so we had to try it again (I know your probably shaking your head) This time we put a girl in the front with the paddle and having one of us guys in the back. Success!

After the first run walking back up the river, cops stopped us and I had a million thoughts running through my head (will I be deported, charged). Hell no! I forgot its New Zealand. They explained to us that if an emergency situation happens then we will be charged. Being young and invincible this did not stop us! The cops actually watched and laughed as we kept falling out. I love NZ

The best part was that another car pulled up with 3 Kiwi guys jumping out with cameras running towards us. Turns out another group of 5 Kiwi guys (very intoxicated) had the same idea and started further up the river in a very similar raft size to ours... They flew by us! Hollering and yelling the whole time.  (Just picture 5 real drunk teenagers barely in a dinky raft all with paddles no bigger than a kitchen soup spoon paddling down the river) This was one of the funniest things I have ever seen

One of the rocks we hit popped a hole in the bottom of the raft. Nothing a little patch job cant fix up!

K-Mart Grundy Run

Today I competed in my first ever "Underwear Run" Only hearing about an advertisement on the radio a couple days prior, my buddy Ryan and I show up at this field all ready for business around 10:30am expecting to see a run expo and a registration desk (seeing how the run was at 12pm). It was dead and we thought we were in the wrong place. Turns out the registration started at 11:30am at the place we were at (Honestly I should have known, being in Kiwi Land)

It ended up being an obstacle course run across a rugby field, that they thought of on the spot (run 50m, crawl 10m, run backwards 20m then sprint right back to the start...) Talk about organization. Race actually didn't start until around 12:30pm and there was a turn out of around 35 people (not bad for a half an hour notice eh!). The winner got a $500 gift card to K-Mart!






Being the tall long distance runner, I did not have a chance against all these short track stars (Ryan and I had a plan that I would sacrifice myself to take out the fastest runner and he could win, we decided against it though). We didn't do too bad! I had a bad start but caught up on the mud crawl through an awesome power slide but at that point there was already a Kiwi hitting the end of the rugby field.


Overall it was so much fun! Got a little muddy, had like 5 hot dogs and they gave out some random prizes (I snagged a classy fleece sweater vest). Ryan and I walked back to our flats in our underwear. We got some pretty funny looks (Ryan was in a speedo...)


It times like these that make this trip so memorable and such a great time! Lord only knows whats going to happen next...

Tuesday 21 August 2012

The Real Mud, Sweat and Tears


This last weekend a group of 6 of us (Laura, Emma, Erin, Rachel, Marvin and I) did the Silver Peaks tramping trail that’s right outside of Dunedin. Having such bed weather during the last week I was hesitant to tag along but thankfully the forecast predicted sunny skies for Saturday at least.

We left Saturday morning around 8:30 getting one of our Kiwi-hosts to drop us off at the trail car park. We had a small printed topographic map between the 6 of us that could barely read it. We set off down a dirt road that was suppose to lead us to the actual trail head. Finally walking for over an hour and a half down the same dirt road we all realized that we were completely lost and no lie, at that very moment a pickup truck came up right behind us (we got very lucky on that one). It was a Kiwi and his two kids that I'm assuming went hunting that morning because they had one massive dead wild pig in the back of the pickup (nothing like a Saturday morning family outing going pig shooting). He explained to us that we passed the entrance to the trail 40 minutes ago... So we turned around and walked back to the beginning.

Starting off the trail wasn't bad at all! Not a big fan of the downhill but it was a moderate slope and was fairly  easy to maneuver down it. Finally reaching the bottom I realized why it was such an easy start! We had to cross this river with a freaking current so strong I thought that the girls were definitely goners. I made it across first put my pack down and went back to help each person across (making sure no one got swept away!) Finally all making it across safe and sound, it was all uphill from there.

Cabin built in the 50's
We reached a cabin at the top of the mountain where we stopped and had lunch (PB&J specialties). We set off only to reach another cabin 15 minutes down the trail. It was a shack built in the 1950's by the tramping club and boy was it scary. Mud floors, hay to sleep on, holes in the roof. No way would I be staying a night in there.

After the grimy cabin we reached some dense brush with these prickly bushes that cut my legs up so bad (wrong choice to wear shorts). The trail was infested with these "pricklies!" We met up with two internationals coming from  the opposite way. They were suppose to staying in Jubilee cabin (same one we were heading to) on the Friday night as we were heading there that Saturday night. Unfortunately they started the trail at 4pm Friday night (it gets dark at 5?) and couldn't find the cabin in the dark. They ended up sleeping on the trail... That would have been one cold night.

Finally getting to the end of the pricklies we were up along the ridge of the mountains and could see Jubilee cabin in the distance. Just a climb down into a valley, across another river (that had a pig carcass hanging over it) and we hit Jubilee! We were the only trampers there at that point. We made dinner, failed at starting a fire with all the wet wood and played spoons (with tea bags because we didn't have actual spoons).

As it was getting dark, another group of 5 Kiwi's showed up to the cabin with dry fire wood! (they carried it in). We enjoyed a nice fire made by them and star gazed with a bottle of wine and a scrumpy (scrumpy is an amazing Kiwi cider). It started to rain and we decided to head into bed after a long day of getting lost and hiking up and down mountains.

I wish I was making this part of the story up but at around 10:30pm footsteps came onto the porch of the cabin and everyone just stopped and waited for someone to come into the cabin. Doesn't a guy just dressed head to toe in camo, holding a rifle, come in wearing night vision goggles! I thought we were all dead. Turned out the guy was super awesome and even let us try his night vision goggles! (that's something that everyone should get the chance to try). Except I fell off the deck because you have no depth perception wearing them.

Waking up the next day was not cold at all because of how packed the cabin was! We got up had the classic PB&J breakfast with some homemade granola and set off down the trail again. Mr.Hunter decided to tag along with our group (and he ended up being real handy). First thing at 9am we had to go up against was the "Devil's Staircase" and yes it was definitely as bad as it sounds! It was a 340m super steep climb to the top. Just as we got to the top of the staircase the weather turned miserable which really sucked because there was no view! It was really cloudy and I had to bring out the rain gear.

The rest of the trail was a slow descent down from the top of the mountain and into the car park. Half of our group had not planned ahead for getting a ride back (I know, I was confused about that part too) But Mr.Hunter being the generous guy he was gave us a lift back into town!

 Great weekend with some awesome people!



Friday 17 August 2012

Living Dunedin Style.


Off to Class
I have never experienced weather similar to what Dunedin has had in the last couple of days. Referring to it as "raining cats and dogs" would be an understatement. I hardly left my flat to venture out into the weather because it was so bad (finished both the Entourage and Walking Dead seasons... which I am definitely a tad embarassed about). But Ofcourse these crazy kiwis had to take advantage of this extreme weather! I guess they figured it would be a good idea to surf the Leith river, which runs directly through the Otago campus. I cannot begin to describe the shock I was in when I first heard this. Leave it to the kiwis to casually surf the raging river after three days of non-stop pouring rain.
Surfing the Leith. The freestyle club gave that
guy $50 bar tab for being an idiot...


Fortunately the weather for the last two days has been beautiful. I decided to get out of the house and take a bike ride (an awesome Kiwi lent me a bike for the semester!) I planned to take the trails up to the top of Signal Hill and enjoy the nice view with the amazing weather. Turned out I took the wrong trail to get to the top and practically walked up more than half of it... Wasn't that much fun getting up there (Took over an hour and a half). Finally I made it to the top! And don't the clouds roll in and block the entire view of the city. At this point I was not the happiest of sorts (Kiwi lingo). I headed back down the same way I came up (which was the proper way) and the crazy 15 minute ride back down through the trails made the whole trip worth it!
Last time I was at Signal Hill
What was waiting at the top for
me this time



Last night a group of us did the Speights Brewery tour (which is a local beer, brewed right out of Dunedin). It was real interesting learning about the process of creating the liquid gold. It was a 45 minute tour of the factory, seeing the production lines, the raw materials and learning about the history (blah blah blah). Finally at the end of the tour, the group gets an unlimited "sample" of the brewery products for 20 to 30 minutes. All 9 of us eager hooligans thought we died and gone to heaven!
The Raw Materials










Looking back on it now I really do feel kind of bad for the rest of the other non-university students that were on the tour. It definitely turned into a competition right away between our group to see who could be the "King of the Speights tour" (or the biggest idiot hogging the beer tap). It actually worked out in our groups favor to go on the tour with an older crowd because they distracted the tour guide (who gets paid to drink beer!) while we subtly tried to drink the factory dry. Overall we had 36 minutes of unlimited drinking and within that time I placed second in being the closest one to the drunkest idiot (my parents would be so proud). It was such a blast, I highly recommend the tour.



"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza."
-Dave Barry

After the tour our flat had a large gathering of sorts with a hat and wig theme! I would say between the tour and some of the ridiculous hats that I got to witness afterwards it was a fantastic night! (Poor Laura left her laundry on the clothes line to dry, forgot to take it down and some jerk stole her size 7.5 skate shoes!?!)

I'm now off to bed, got to wake up early for the Silver Peaks tramp we are doing tomorrow.

GOODNIGHT




Saturday 11 August 2012

To the Mountains!

Let me first explain that I have never really been on a hike (NZ - tramp) back in North America let alone a 3 day tramp! But after hearing so many stories from other international students I thought that I should definitely give it a try. So I bought an 80L tramping bag online, found a sleeping mat in my flat, made some granola and we were off for a weekend tramp!

Our group of 5 (Emma, Dooley, V, and Ryan) left on Friday August 3rd 2012 around 5pm, set out to conquer Mount Somers. It was a 4 hour drive and because we left super late we really couldn't see much of the drive. We stopped on the way at the Golden Arches for a burger and poor Ryan got harassed by a homeless man either because he wanted Ryan's Mcflurry or wanted Ryan to buy him a Mcflurry. We really couldn't understand past the drunken accent...

We made it to the car park just past 9pm, where it was pitch black, cold and it looked like it was going to start raining. Earlier in the year I met some amazing kiwis in one of my classes and they ended up lending me a 6 person tent for the semester! So this came in really handy at this point of the night yet I had not opened the tent bag to make sure everything was there, I was really just hoping it would be. We set the tent up underneath an enclosed area using the lights from the car to see (I filmed the whole set up using Tina) and thankfully all the parts were there. We all went straight to bed after the tent was complete. That night got so cold that V (who was using a thin summer sleeping bag) actually ended up sleeping in the car! I don't think any of us had that great of a sleep that night.

Saturday morning we started around just after 8am and we had an 8 hour day of hiking ahead of us (Just a side note, Ryan and I were using Asics running shoes for the entire tramp). I think the first 20 minutes of the tramp were the absolute hardest part of the entire trip! It was all up a real muddy trail on a super steep incline and all I could think to myself was "what did I get myself into?" Finally it leveled out and we were all really relieved.

At that peak we were almost level with the mountain beside us and it was breathtaking (definitely worth the hard ass trek up the hill). From the peak we headed back down into a valley and walked along there from a good amount of time (all while playing 1,2,3 Contact which I must was a pretty awesome game). The Valley led us straight into a forested area where the path was literally a stream running down a hill and since Ryan and I were wearing Asics runners it was more of a game of jumping from rock to rock trying to keep our feet dry. Unfortunately there were some pretty big soakers along this path, nothing we couldn't handle though.

We head up another peak out of the forest and hit snow! Climbing through the 2 feet of snow with wet shoes wasnt the highlight of the day. Everyone kept falling into the snow and Dooley even took a wipe-out.

V, Ryan, Dooley, Emma, Me



We finally hit the cabin at the midway point for lunch and everyone seemed very anxious to eat. Looking at the log-book at the cabin it seemed that people from all over the world have done this trail but i think we had them beat! (Emma & Ryan - America, Dooley - England, V - South Africa and of course Canada!)

After lunch we headed into more valleys that were enclosed by massive mountains on either side. Tramping for over two hours we saw our cabin that we were staying at in the distance. All being so relieved we thought the day was almost over! Little did we know we still had a whole mountain ridge to climb up and down and cross a raging river. Climbing up that mountain we all thought we were heading in the wrong direction or that we saw the wrong cabin (Nope, that's where the path actually was) We ended up stopping for afternoon tea at the top of the mountain (its more like a snack, we didn't have actual tea - Kiwi Lingo) Climbing back down the mountain we all just looked for the furthest marker we could see and started walking towards it, making our own path! (Just wanting to get to the cabin). Finally we started heading to a reasonable elevation where we found a river that seemed to have no crossing. Ryan went through the bush and hopped across some rocks with no problem so I tried to follow him and I went for a little dip. It ended up being for the best because when Dooley crossed her glasses fell in the water so I ended up going back in to get them (It was a tad chilly)

And before we even reached the cabin we had to cross a bridge that looked like it was from an Indiana Jones movie. It was real cool, but super rickety.






Finally made it to the cabin! started a fire and got some pasta cooking! Ryan and I being the "tramping experts" that we are  forgot plates, a fork, and everything else; so it was a romantic dinner of us eating out of the spaghetti pot together (we found forks in the cabin). It was a great night roasting marshmallow hearts over the fire and I have never seen a sky full of so many stars in my life. Everyone was pretty tired from the 8 hour day, so it was also an early night to bed.

Waking up the next day wasn't as cold as the Saturday morning was because the fire kept us warm for the majority of the night. We all packed our stuff up, cleaned up the cabin and set off for a 6 hour day of tramping. Of course the first thing is another massive hill to climb up! But I finally realized the higher you go the better the view is! and it was long way up (amazing view).

We then started tramping along the side of the mountain and casually passing a "Bus Stop" sign? It was probably the most random thing I've seen in a while. We then made it to the cabin we were staying at for lunch and we really only had two hours more until we were back at the car park (all anyone could talk about for the entire day was how good KFC is going to be when we are done). The last leg of the tramp was all within a dense forested area passing streams and waterfalls (reminded me of a Canadian forest). And within an hour and a half to go we had our first conversation with another group of people! It was a large family that stayed a night in the cabin we just came from having lunch at (the older sister did not look happy at all to be doing this tramp). Finally seeing a clearing Ryan and I just ended up running the rest of the hike really just using the trees to slow us down on the hills (EXTREME TRAMPING!).

We made it back to the car park just under 5 hours (took almost an hour off our time that day). And the first stop on the way home was definitely KFC (I wasn't man enough to attempt the Double Down though). At this point my poor Asics were so destroyed I conformed to being a kiwi for the rest of the day (barefoot styles).

 The weather for the entire trip was beautiful! The forecast did call for some rain but we were lucky enough to not see it at all. I feel that it was an amazing first experience tramping, I learned so much being out there (like I should've brought a fork and plate) and had so much fun doing it. I Cant wait to get back into the trails!