On the Other Side (of the World)

On Australia - Les

2009-12-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

Australia was a very different trip than the New Zealand Portion. In New Zealand we were moving around every few days in our rental car. We chose our own schedule and even modified it a bit. In Australia, we were pretty set on our timeline since we were flying every where. We did have a car in Tasmania and for a day in Cairns, but we were day tripping out of a central location each time. I think that this made it feel a bit more touristy to me, not that there was anything wrong with that. It was awesome seeing the beaches, coral reefs and tropical rain forests on the north coast immediately followed by sub-alpine rain forests in Tasmania. Throw in huge tracks of eucalyptus forests just west of Sydney and we had a pretty spectacular time tramping around the outback. Partying in the cities was too bad either. :o) Now I just have to figure out what to do when I go back. Shouldn't be too hard...

On Getting Home and More Time Travel

2009-12-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

We are home.

We slept through the first two of three alarms that I set, but we made the flights and are now home in San Francisco. It was a long flight even though it took us negative 45 minutes to do it. Lots of reading, movie watching, sudoku, sleeping and wearing the neck pillow got us here. Phil watched a bunch of movies and slept mostly. Maybe did some sudoku as well. Oh and you should ask him about the awesome book he was reading. Jaguars that are 5 feet tall at the shoulder. Exciting! I watched part of a movie, slept about an hour and read those ridiculously expensive books I bought in Australia.

Luckily, the jet lag hasn't been too bad, so Sunday wasn't too bad. We're getting close to wrapping things up here on the blog. Just a few more posts to wrap things up!

On Beer

2009-12-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

Mmmmmm... Beeeeeerrrrrrr... I must say that I quite enjoyed the beer I sampled while I was Down Under. All the New Zealand beer I had was very tasty and easy drinking. Some of the Australian beer was so so, but the Tasmania beer was fantastic. James Boag and Cascade in particular. VB was a good beach day beer. Maybe my taste buds are getting numbed by the stuff that Jason, Garvie and Ted force on me, but I honestly didn't think that it was very bitter.

I repeat, Mmmmmmmmmmmmm... Beeeeeeeeeerrrrrrr...

On Serving Them Up Fresh

2009-12-13T19:09:00.000-08:00

Roadkill. Mmmmmmm... Seeing roadkill in another country on another continent was very interesting. Wallabies are the most common roadkill in Australia, at least as far as I could tell. Not gonna lie, some of the fine specimens were hard to distinguish. Luckily for your stomaches, I don't have an appropriate photo to share with this.

On Rediscovering Lost Loves

2009-12-12T00:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't had one of these in a long time...

Here in Australia, McDonald's soft serve is only 50 cents. That is about as good of a deal as you can get. I have had more than one and that is all I'll say...

On Kangaroo, Closure and Being Manly

2009-12-12T00:06:00.000-08:00

Today we had one goal, make it to Manly Beach. Goal was accomplished, but it was a little annoying to get it done. Turns out the subway has a citywide closure for this weekend. They have buses replacing the train lines (no idea where they got all of the extra buses from), but it was kind of a pain dealing with them. We ended up walking much of the way that we were planning on taking the train. Oh well. We made it to the wharf, so that we could grab the ferry over to the beach, and stopped and did a bit of gift shopping at the local farmers market. Some really awesome stuff being sold down there.

The ferry ride was pretty cool. It took about half an hour, and we just cruised just about the entire harbor. There was a good wind on the water so the sail boats were out in force.

We grabbed some lunch once we go there, and I finally got to have some kangaroo!

We spent a few hours on the beach, fully protected from the sun, but not the wind and sand. Manly Beach is a very windy beach. We covered with a fine layer of sand rather quickly, but what ever. It was a great day and we were hanging out on a pretty sweet beach. Game on!

On Feeling Blue

2009-12-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

Ugh, the trip is almost over, and neither of us really wants to go back. Sure, we miss all you guys (I guuuueeeeessss), but there are still way too many things to do and see. Since we're feeling a little blue about having to come home, we thought we'd take a trip to the Blue Mountains to see if it would have a crazy reverse effect on our mood. You can probably tell from the pictures that it did, and our spirits have been lifted.

On Sticking Things in Your Nose

2009-12-11T00:29:00.000-08:00

Well, at least it's just eucalyptus leaves...

In his defense, they did smell really good and so did the tea leaf tree leaves.

On Handeling It

2009-12-10T00:46:00.000-08:00

Sydney's Opera House

We had the opportunity to see Handel's Messiah in the main concert hall and the Opera House. Needless to say, it was pretty spectacular. The Opera House is an amazing piece of work by itself without having an amazing philharmonic orchestra and a choir consisting of a few hundred people performing a great work music. The Hallelujah Chorus was chills inducing. A great way to spend an evening.

On Tipping

2009-12-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

The States have an interesting custom in restaurants that upon finishing your meal you give the waiter 10-20% of the value of your meal. It's called tipping. From regal to the hole in the wall, you pay your waiter based on the value of the meal, not the value of their service. A good waiter working at dump make a lot less than a bad waiter working in a 5 star restaurant. Granted, he might not be working there for much longer, but that is besides the point. In many part of the world, tipping isn't a custom. Sometimes the touristy places will try and get the Americans to do it since we are used to it, but usually it isn't done. The wait staff are paid by their employers, thus indirectly by the customers, instead of the direct compensation of tipping. I have know a lot of people that have worked in the food industry and they have informed that they live off their tips. The $2.71 they make an hour from their employers doesn't really cut it. It's just easier on the consumer here. Anyways, I just wanted to make a brief note about this.

Question: In countries that have no one dollar bills, how does one go about tipping a stripper?

On Books and Three Year Waits

2009-12-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Australia,

Is it really necessary for you to price your paperback books at $20 AUD? Is paper that much harder to come by here? Is ink that much more expensive? (Note: I am leaving the quality of the content out of this as I have seen some crap books that are also more expensive.) I'll buy it anyways because I like reading books, but I was just wondering...

Sincerely,

Les

P.S. - Thanks for have books seven, eight and nine of one of the series I am reading in paper back here. The US only just release book 6 in hardback not too long ago. The only problem is now I'll have to wait three years for book 10 to come out in the States... sigh...

On How There is a Mathematical Equation to Explain Everything

2009-12-09T20:20:00.000-08:00

Sydney = (San Francisco + NYC) / 2.

That pretty much sums it up, no pun intended. Sydney is a gorgeous city that has a lot of NYC and San Francisco blended together. We're staying in Kings Cross which is like a little baby Times Square, Sydney has great public transportation, it's right on the water, and has a nice skyline.

I'd say the only distinguishing factor Sydney has to offer is that they don't allow "birds" like Les and I to stay in their city. So, that is why we'll be leaving on Sunday.

Oh yeah, and we're going to the Opera House tonight to see a concert. So BOOM!

On Reliving Childhood Breakfasts

2009-12-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

It has been about 20 years since I have had pancakes with ice cream. The last place I had it was in Vernon Hills, IL prepared by none other than my mom. And it was tough to beat. Unfortunately, I have not seen it offered anywhere else since then... until today. When strolling around in Sydney to get the day started, we came across a place that had pancakes with bananas and vanilla ice cream. Even if we already had eaten, I would have forced us to stop here just so I could get it. It definitely goes down in the books as the SECOND best pancakes with ice cream that I've ever had. There was just one flaw, and I'll let you figure out what it was:

OK, fine I'll tell you. Not enough ice cream. Duh.

On Wineglasses

2009-12-08T03:12:00.000-08:00

Today we drove out to Freycinet National Park today, on the recommendation of one of our previous hostel's staff. It was a good 2-3 hour drive from Hobart, but it was well worth it. We had a bit of a lazy start to the day and didn't really get on the road till around 11. The drive out was a nice drive, as are most all drives in Australia (and New Zealand for that matter) that we have done so far. The first walk we did was the Wineglass Bay Lookout/Beach walk. You basically walk up and over a small mountain pass to get to the bay. There is a pretty sweet lookout half way there that game an amazing view of the bay.

But the view from down on the beach was pretty good too...

After making the trek back to the car, we drove on over to a lighthouse that was just a few klicks up the road. There was a nice little boardwalk that circled the lighthouse on the cliff and it provided some amazing views. This a shot looking in to Wineglass Bay. It's the little white sand beach way back there on the right.

We also had a pretty killer sunset on the way home...

All in all it was a much better day than I had expected. I love it when that happens.

On Being Vertically Challenged

2009-12-07T03:03:00.000-08:00

One of the walks in Mount Fields National Park is called the Tall Trees Walk. To be sure the swamp gum trees are tall. In fact, they are the tallest hardwood trees and flowering plants on Earth (Redwoods are softwood trees), the tallest being around 300 feet tall. Don't get me wrong, they were pretty cool, I just think that someone that doesn't live so close to Redwoods might be in a little bit more awe from them...

On Fields and Pouches

2009-12-07T02:22:00.000-08:00

It was a pretty good day today. We took off out of Hobart this morning and set our sights on Mount Fields National Park. I had read about this on Boots 'n All and it was on my initial plan for our time in Tasmania, so I am glad that we ended up doing it. We did a few of the shorter return walks, a number of which are lists on Tasmania's Top Short Walks List. One of them was the Russell Falls walk which is a very short one right behind the visitors center. Ten minutes in you run into a beautify terraced waterfall which we were debating might have been one of the cooler waterfalls we've seen.

We also did part of an alpine hike, but it started raining and that forced us to turn back sooner than we would have liked. Got some pretty cool views of the valley though.

After Mount Fields we wandered just down the road to an animal sanctuary and saw a ton of the cool Australian animals. We saw Tasmanian devils, wombats, a couple of different types of wallabies, some more koalas and kangaroos, a few others that were awesome but escape my memory and a wild platypus swimming and diving in a stream. How was your day?

On Nutrition Facts

2009-12-07T00:28:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure about other countries, but I've noticed that in Australia, instead of putting the amount of Calories on the back of a food product, they show the amount of Energy in kilojoules. Maybe that is what we should start doing in America. So many Americans treat Calories as a negative, and they're too concerned with how much they're intaking. Energy, on the otherhand, has a positive ring to it. Take this box of Tim Tams for example. Each chocolate biscuit has 400 kJ of "energy". I made sure I ate 2 just in case I started running low towards the end of the afternoon.

On Ghost Towns and Slow Internet

2009-12-06T02:56:00.000-08:00

If you want to know what a modern ghost town looks like, try downtown Hobart on a Sunday evening. It is a quaint little city, but it's pretty dead. Tasmania is our play it by ear section of the trip. We have one out of three nights here booked and nothing planned. There were thoughts of rolling up to Craddle Mountain, but it doesn't look like that is going to fit into our timeline here. Instead we'll probably be day triping out of Hobart each day and seeing a few more things instead of just Craddle Mountain. We'll let you know what it ends up being.

On Incredibly Unhelpful Information People

2009-12-05T04:16:00.000-08:00

When we got up this morning and checked with the tour desk at the hostel about renting a car and heading out to Daintree his was response was pretty much, "Good luck." He also was not overly helpful with suggesting things to to do. He told us we should have left over 2 hours earlier if wanted to actually see anything.

Not only did we beat all of his time estimates for driving we saw most everything worth seeing between Cairns and Cape Trib. Don't believe me? Check out some of these shots.

On Logs That Aren't Logs

2009-12-05T04:08:00.000-08:00

Crocs are a very real problem here. The animal, not the shoe. Most bodies of water, streams and rivers have signs up that warn against going in the water.

Some joke signs even say that you shouldn't into water that is past your eyebrows... when you're standing on your head. We only saw crocs in the zoo we went to, but he was a big boy 4+ meters in length.

On Cuteness Overload

2009-12-05T03:34:00.000-08:00

So yeah... I got to hold a koala today...

and feed some wallabies...

I hope that didn't just blow your mind because it's pretty much the most adorable thing ever. The koala... not me. I mean, I am pretty adorable, but come on, who can compete with a freakin' koala. Adorable. And soft. Did I mention soft? Interesting fact, Koalas sleep around 20 hours a day because they poison themselves with their diet all the time.

On Tom Petty

2009-12-05T03:28:00.000-08:00

I don't know how it happens, but Tom Petty has the unique ability to get his song on the airwaves every time somebody has an opportunity to be inspired while on the road. Just like Tom Cruise singing "Free Fallin'" in Jerry Maguire.

After a day of unbeatable productivity -- seeing just about everything we possibly could north of Cairns and up to Cape Tribulation -- Tom Petty popped on the radio just as the sun was setting on the beautiful drive back. We were graced with three songs in a row (Free Fallin', I Won't Back Down, and Runnin' Down a Dream), and that's why I'm going to leave you with three photos that captured the moment...IN A ROW!

On Expiration Dates

2009-12-05T03:24:00.000-08:00

It turns out that my drivers license expired on my birthday this year (10/28/09). So, not only have I been driving in the States with an expired license, but I managed to escape the rental car agency in NZ and drive thousands of kilometers without getting caught. These Australians are a little bit more sharp, however, and the guy from Thrifty noticed it right away. Sorry Les. Looks like you're driving the rest of the trip. I'll just kick back and DJ. You can choose between Michelle Branch and Lady GaGa...

On GBR

2009-12-04T00:44:00.000-08:00

That's GBR, not PBR. Both are awesome, consist primarily of water and contain the byproducts of very tiny organisms, but only one comes from Australia. And believe it or not, I'd prefer not to go scuba diving in the a big body of PBR. As you may have gathered, Phil and I went scuba diving and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef today. Pretty Sweeeeeet! We spent about an hour snorkeling on the surface and probably an hour diving in total. I am now totally convinced for the need to get my diver's certification. Monterey Bay, here I come. Now some of you may know, that I not a huge fan open water. I can deal with it, but I don't like it overly much. It might have something to do with me not being a great swimmer.... to prove that, I used one of the floaty noodle things while snorkeling. I am awesome. Just no way to get around it. We did some snorkeling first. Not going to lie to you, I had some issues initially with the breathing because we were over deep open water, but as soon as the reefs appeared below us, I forgot about breathing (and the problems with doing it with my face under water) and just got lost in the beauty. I had no more problems from there on out. The scuba diving was a piece of cake. Took me about three breaths to get adjusted and then I was off. Now Phil has done this all before, so he was swimming and breathing laps around me. We did two dives at two different reef, Saxon Reef was one of them and the other was smaller and just a little to the south. Both sites were awesome and I have included some pictures from the waterproof camera we rented. Have a look...

Hey, it's Scuba Steve!

A pretty awesome coral formation

Amazing fan coral

Our very last photo taken, courtesy of Phil...

On Finding Nemo

2009-12-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

Anyone who loves the movie Finding Nemo (Lindsey...) might want to stop reading this post right now...I'll wait while you come to your sense and skip to the next one. For the rest of you, I'll be telling you how the movie should have really gone. Pixar does a lot of research for their movies, but I am guessing that they just decided to omit this little factoid. In the movie Coral dies early on. this leaves Marlin without a mate and Nemo without a mom. A single tear rolls down my cheek. Now Pixar uses this to set up the relationship dynamic between Marlin and his son Nemo. In reality the relationship would be there... but very different. You remember in Jurassic Park when the dinasours switch genders and start breeding? Yeah, that's what would ahve happened to Marlin. Marlin would have become Marlina and would have started a new family with Nemo being the father to the next batch of eggs. Awesome, huh?

Pretty clown fish!

On Washing Away

2009-12-04T00:23:00.000-08:00

Siiiiigh... You'd think that I'd have learned my lesson from Phuket. Well, I actually did, partly. Tropical sun is ridiculous. We went swimming up at Palm Cove just north of Cairns and did our duty and put on our sunscreen. Lots of it. Then proceeded to immediately get in the water. We got burned. Not horribly, but it's red and stings a bit. We should have waited for it to dry and set before getting in the water... even though it was waterproof... grumble... grumble... Whatever. Just remember, trust me on the sunscreen.

On the Las Vegas Hostels

2009-12-03T03:16:00.000-08:00

Seriously, Phil... Good Job. I am just going to post a link to where Phil booked us for our time in Cairns. Gilligan's. Granted the ratings on HostelWorld were high (I wonder why...), which is where he booked it. In the future, Phil, check out the site before you book, I need be prepared and be sure to bring my muscle shirts and aviators. It's gonna be a good time regardless, just gonna have to drink more Red Bull. Just sayin'....

Edit: Christina Aguilera singing Dirty over the speakers in reception FTW!

On Missing iPhones

2009-12-03T03:07:00.000-08:00

We've gone almost 2 weeks without our iPhones!!! Well, actually that's not true. They've been in airplane mode so we don't get reamed for international roaming charges. Les is always reading books on his phone, and I do occasionally enjoy a game of Sudoku or two. But, oh how we do miss the pinch and squeeze zoom options that comes with applications such as maps. I'm so used to that handy little tool, that, for a second, I thought I could use it on the car maps that were provided from Europcar. Silly me. Don't worry phone -- I will be back in the States soon enough...

On Drastic Weather Changes

2009-12-03T02:46:00.000-08:00

New Zealand was warm, but it was San Francisco warm. Mid 60's, maybe 70. As you already know we finished New Zealand up in Christchurch where the weather was windy, rainy, and colder than everywhere else we had visited.

But, now we are in Australia, and instead of wasting our time transitioning into the heat, we jumped right in it. In CAIRNS! The weather is "sweat-after-you-shower" warm, the water is "make-your-body-melt" warm, and the sand is "I'm-walking-on-pillows" soft. Tomorrow is an all day scuba/snorkeling extravaganza in the Great Barrier Reef, and we even rented an underwater camera to take pictures. In the meantime, we'll leave you with this...

On Facebook

2009-12-03T02:34:00.000-08:00

I walked up to this girl who was checking her Facebook photos, and I innocently asked, "What's Facebook?" She kindly started going off explaining that it was a site, blah blah blah. I felt bad letting her continue to embarrass herself, so I interrupted her and told her I was just kidding. Fortunately, I got a big laugh out of her about it and not a "Bloody Americans" remark.

But seriously, EVERYONE is on Facebook. Everywhere we go, there are multiple people on Facebook at the same time either writing messages, chatting, etc. Here is a picture to prove it. Every single person is on Facebook, and there was one more that didn't fit in the shot.

On New Zealand - Philip

2009-12-03T01:52:00.000-08:00

New Zealand was cool,
New Zealand was great,
New Zealand was Sweet As*,
There's nothing to hate.

* http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sweet%20as

On New Zealand - Les

2009-12-03T01:50:00.001-08:00

So I figured that it would be a good idea to throw together some final thoughts about New Zealand, so here you go. As you can probably imagine, New Zealand is pretty freaking awesome. It would be easy to spend weeks/months just hiking around the South Island, let alone the North. The West Coast was hands down my favorite part and incidentally was where we spent most of our time. I'm not saying that the East Coast wasn't cool, we saw sea lions up close in the wild (like they might eat you if you look at them funny close), some penguins coming ashore and a pretty awesome steampunk art exhibit. The West Coast just had so many amazing wonders to behold and well, I held... be held... was held by... them. So quick recap:

Flew into Christchurch Sunday morning early and immediately got in a car and drove to Dunedin stopping by Omarau on the way. Went gallivanting around the Sandfly Beach and the sand dunes trying not to anger the enormous sea lions 10 feet away while keeping a look out for penguins making their way to shore. Proceeded to spend the night in Dunedin so that we could make it Te Anau (and The wondrous Fiordland) the next day a bit easier. Drove over to Te Anau so that we could hit up Fiordland National Park. Did the Rainbow Reach part of the Kepler Track and the crashed like it was our job. Woke up early the next and had our plans up-ended because one of the walks we were planning on was going to cost $300 to charter a boat. Ended up doing the Luxmore hut portion of the Kepler Track and then crashing that night like we were getting paid time and a half. Next up... Milford Sound! It was a bit rainy, but that just made the water falls that much more awesome. Seriously, bloody brilliant. Packed it up that night and headed over to Queenstown the next day. Spent some time skipping rocks on Lake Wakatipu on the way, you know... just cause. Just putzed around a bit taking care of a few things that first day and night in QT. Next day was Canyon swinging and rain. Three jumps/falls/hand stands off a platform and some rain. Good combo? Well, it makes for a dodgy heart and an early night. But that was just a warm up. Sky diving from 15,000 ft AGL (16,200 ft ASL, highest commercial jump in the world). Shuuuuuut Up! Chatted with some Canadians girls that had just finished their jumps and ended up running into them latter that night at the World Bar. They must have had a Canadian posse because they had another 4+ with them at the bar. Oh, one word... teapot. Two more... bad idea. Learned that New Zealand bars close at 4:30. Rough drive on Sunday up to Franz Josef. Great drive, but rough. Go figure. Monday we were hiking on a freaking glacier. That's right. A GLACIER! What global warming? One more night in Franz Josef and then it was a five hour drive over Arthur's Pass (and through the clouds that prevented us from seeing anything cool) to Christchurch. Not much happening for us in Christchurch. Kind of crappy weather. Ended up running into one of the Canadian dudes from QT and met up with him and some of his group that night. Sadly, for all involved, there was a contest going on at the bar, some guy won a $400 tattoo for licking another guy's butt. Aaaaannnndddd... that was when we decided to call it a night and head to Australia.

Awesome times had. Great people met. Hope to see some of them around again sometime. Great wonders beheld. Just need to hold them again sometime in the future.

On Movies in Foreign Countries

2009-12-03T01:39:00.001-08:00

There's nothing like a good old fashioned American made blockbuster thriller with absurd special effects and cheesy dialogue to make you feel right at home in a foreign country. Early mornings and long treks through the wilderness wears us out, and occasionally a mindless movie to round out the night is just what the doctor ordered. So far on our trip we have seen two movies in the theater, and they are movies that would suggest that we were desperate to not have to think or move:

1) 2012

2) Surrogates

I was mostly curious how crowds would respond to 2012. For example, would they laugh when the fake Arnold Schwarzjaenajaeieger (I don't think I spelled that right) appeared on television? The answer was yes. Would they laugh when the large Russian responds with "It's Russian..." to the kid's "That plane is huge" comment. The answer was yes. And would they chuckle when the stereotypical foreign leaders appeared on screen for the first time? The answer was no. All in all, I was a little disappointed that I didn't hear any boos. I was hoping that something would make them unsettled, but they stared through the screen just like all of us Americans do.

On Us in New Zealand

2009-12-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

Figured we could have a post that had a lot of picutres of both of us. You know... because you can't get enough of our ugly mugs...

At one of the lookout points on the Rainbow Reach section of the Kepler Track

Above the brushline on the Luxmore Hut portion of the Kepler Track

On the shore of Lake Wakatipu on our way from Te Anau to Queenstown

Going out in Queenstown

Here we are at the bottom of our Franz Josef Glacier Hike.

And here we are at the top of our hike on the Franz Josef Glacier. There are actaully people walking around the river bed down there. That's where the above picture was taken.

On Christchurch

2009-12-01T13:16:00.000-08:00

It's lame. Well, I'm being a little harsh, but I haven't been impressed with it thus far. It reminds me of L.A. with crappier weather. There weren't any places worth eating last night, so we ended up eating at McDonalds. I never thought I'd eat there again, but it was between that and KFC. But, fortunately, Christchurch was just our entry and exit point to the south island. We leave today for Australia and warm sandy beaches. NZ has been amazing, and we're so grateful that we got a chance to visit this small paradise nestled in the southern corner of the globe. Now it's time to duct tape the car up, turn it in, hop on a plane, and move on.

Until next time...

On Dietary Needs

2009-12-01T03:12:00.000-08:00

It was interesting to see that most resturaunts in New Zealand clearly noted on their menus which of their meals were gluten free or could be made gluten free. How considerate of them.

On Poo

2009-12-01T03:07:00.000-08:00

Yup. Poo. They are selling it everywhere in New Zealand. What ever you want horse poo, sheep poo, cow poo, garden gnome poo... they are selling it on the side of the road. Oh, and fresh fruit and free range eggs, but those aren't as funny.

PS - Why don't they call it manure? Signs that say "poo" make me laugh like I'm in first grade again... Sorry, Mom.

On Close Calls

2009-11-30T01:14:00.001-08:00

We have not been in any physical danger while driving yet, but we have been in danger of being stranded in the middle of no where without any gas... twice. Yeah, we're just awesome like that. The first time was when we drove up to Milford Sound. We had just over half a tank of gas and there are no services at the Sound. So we had to make the return trip on what we had. We rolled in that night with just over an eighth of tank. It wasn't as close as I thought it was going to be. There was a point on the way there in the morning that I was sure we were going to run out of gas 25-50 kilometers from Te Anau. Luckily, I just I had the wrong distance figures in my head.

Our second close call was on our drive from Queenstown to Franz Josef. We nearly had to coast in with our gas light on and about 1/16th of a tank of gas. This one actually turned out to be a closer call than we were expecting. But all is well, and we have not needed a tow... yet. There is still time to mess this up. Franz Josef to Christchurch tomorrow. It's go time.

On Pretty Birds

2009-11-30T01:07:00.000-08:00

New Zealand is home to the one of only species of alpine parrot, the kea. Here is a nice little shot of it hanging out on the glacier.

This one is a little (read, a lot) blurry, but it give you a good idea of the awesome plumage on the underside of its wings.

On Catching Our Breath While Taking Yours Away

2009-11-30T00:48:00.000-08:00

We spent the day on ice. Literally. We did an all day glacier hike on the Franz Josef Glacier on the west coast of New Zealand. Awesome could be a word used to describe the hike, but it would be grossly inadequate. A quick view from the ice...

"But Les," you say, "I see a little bit of ice, a cool mountain and a cloud. We have seen most of that before. We want to see some AWESOME ICE!" Okay, okay, I guess I can do that... Here take 'em.

This is actually, a good bit away even though you can't tell in the picture. Huge ice waves FTW!

Did I mention that we hiked down and through crevasses? I didn't? Well, we did, like this one. It was probably 10 meters or more over our heads and also awesome.

After such a great day on the ice, we stopped by the Glacier Hot Pools for a relaxing dip in the 40 degree pool. An hour in there and we were ready for bed... well... after we had dinner at Speight's. Great day.

On Reinforcing Stereotypes

2009-11-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

In Queenstown we had the opportunity to meet quite a few people from different parts of the globe, but surprisingly, the majority of them were from Canada and Germany of all places. Good thing I had my Canada hat to blend in, hey? "Hello, my name is Philip, and this is my friend, Les, and we are from Toronto...hey?" That didn't really last very long, and they picked up on our American accents quite quickly.

At one point, the conversation with the Canadians turned into "let's complain about America" time. They started moaning that Canada doesn't have much history, and as a result, they were forced to learn about American history in most of their social studies classes. The rest of the dialogue might explain why everybody hates Americans so much, so I apologize for dragging you along with me...

Them: Did you guys ever have to learn any Canadian history in your social studies classes?

Me: Ummm... No. We learned about you (Canada) in geography class though!

Them (excited): OH! Yeah, like the names of the provinces, and where they are located?

Me (smiling): No, just that you guys are north of us...

They didn't appreciate that remark, and I can understand why. Fortunately, Les came to the rescue with his stunning smile, winning charm, and magnificent beard which made them feel right at home in the empty tundra they live in. He didn't even need a flannel shirt!

But, seriously though, when is the rest of the world going to understand that the United States of America is the center of the universe?

On Auto Repair

2009-11-28T23:55:00.000-08:00

Stupid Toyota with stupid sporty low ride front bumpers. During our first day of driving in NZ, we managed to bottom out and rip some of the plastic wheel covers for the front wheels. After driving for a day we could hear them scraping the ground and flapping in the wind as we drove across the hilly country. Instead of getting it fixed, we decided to stop in front of an auto shop, buy some duct tape, and tape it up like the brilliant engineers that we are. It miraculously lasted a week before we had to stop again on the side of the road on our way to Franz Josef, and now that it's all taped up again, it should last until we head out on Wednesday.

Well, now we're in Franz Josef safely, it's 9pm, and we haven't had dinner yet. Why we are still on the internet, I don't know. All the places are probably closed now, and we'll have to eat the gummy colas that I bought in Queenstown.

On Late Nights

2009-11-28T23:51:00.000-08:00

The bars in New Zealand stay open until 4:30. I know this for a fact. And because of this knowledge, it was rough getting up this morning to get on our way to Franz Josef. We had a 5 hour drive and a 3 hour hike (Rocky Mount Summit, 12km west of Wanaka) to get done. We did it, but it wasn't the prettiest thing we've done so far. We meet up with some Canadian girls that we had run into while sky diving. Janelle and Vanessa then introduced us to the crew of other Canadians and other travellers (Denise, Mallorie, Lina, Marcus, Alex and Terrance). They were all on the same Magic Bus tour and had been hanging for a bit in other places. By far the best group of folks we have met yet. All the best to them in the travels.

On One Lane Bridges and Highways

2009-11-28T23:47:00.000-08:00

The New Zealand highway system is *interesting* to those who have grown up with the US interstates. While I don't bat an eye at have 6 lanes going in one direction in the States, the fact that in NZ the only time there are two lanes going the same way is with the occasional passing lane is novel. Not only are all of their highways one lane in each direction, most all of the bridges on said highways are one lane... shared by both direction of traffic. Again, I say *interesting*.

And just because I can, this is me standing in the middle of highway 6.

On Inequalities

2009-11-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

New Zealand YHA Hostels >> All European Hostels

There I said it. The YHA hostels we have been staying in so far in New Zealand are simply amazing. Great locations, great staff, good prices and the feel of a pretty nice freakin' hotel. I am sold on YHA down under from here on out.

It also doesn't hurt that this is what we see when we walk out the front door of our hostel here in Queenstown...

On Keeping Busy

2009-11-27T23:25:00.000-08:00

So, yes, we went sky diving, and yes, it was awesome, and yes, energy levels are low after our bodies have gone through just about all the adrenaline they could handle for a day. But, it was only 3:30 when we got back, so what better way to finish out the afternoon than to play a little disc golf,

followed by lawn bowling,

followed by massive hamburgers at Fergburger, a popular hangout, in Queenstown. The night is young, though. It's 8:30pm and the sun is still above the mountain tops. Now what?

On Being Worse Sons

2009-11-27T23:16:00.000-08:00

Here you go Moms... We went skydiving today. It was awesome to put it mildly. We jumped out of our perfectly good airplane at 15,000 ft. AGL (above ground level) which is actually 16,200 ft above sea level. It turns out that this is the highest point on earth that you are legally allowed to commercially skydive from.

No. Big. Deal.

Oh, did I mention that the views were breath taking? Well, the views and rushing towards the ground at 200 kph...

Les dropping like a rock from 15,000 ft.

Phil's spectacular exit.

On Taking a Break

2009-11-26T20:02:00.000-08:00

Nature has suggested that we take a break from adrenaline pumping, endurance testing, and sanity affecting activities. It's raining here in Queenstown, but fortunately after we had the chance to freefall off some jagged rocks. This is the perfect time to do laundry, call the folks and say Happy Thanksgiving, and watch an episode of Gavin and Stacey, a BBC comedy series that two people from Leeds, UK put on in the common room. You could definitely pick up on the British humour (that's how those Brits spell "humor"), but I thoroughly enjoyed the American pop song that they decided to end the episode with...

On Being Good Sons

2009-11-26T18:38:00.000-08:00

It is the 27th here in New Zealand, but it still is Turkey Day back home in the States. Being the good sons that we are, we decided to give our moms a little ring. The best part was that we had told them that we wouldn't be able to call at all. :o) Surprise Moms!

On Being Bad Sons

2009-11-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

Soooo... We probably should have told our moms that we were going to do this before we did. Oh well... Here are some videos of what we were up to. You'll need to fast forward to 1:30-2:00 minutes in before you see the good stuff.

This is me jumping off the platform backwards

This is Phil's awesome hand stand right off the edge.

If they don't like this, they sure won't like what we have planned for tomorrow...

On Free Internet While Waiting to Go Bungee Swinging

2009-11-26T13:39:00.001-08:00

They have free internet at the company that does bungee swinging here in Queenstown, so I thought I'd say a quick hello, and a quick goodbye as we wait to get chartered out to the jumping location. The jump is a 60m freefall and then transitions into a 200m arc swing over one of the gorgeous canyons around this area. This is just a warmup for our 15,000 ft. skydive tomorrow. By the way, I just realized that they are advertising the skydiving in feet. Definitely catered to silly Americans seeking thrills like us...

And it worked. Wish us luck.

On Tracks, Tramping and Walks

2009-11-25T17:55:00.001-08:00

When it comes to outdoor activities, they have a different way of referring to things down under. For example, where we might say "trail" in the States, they refer to it as a "track" in New Zealand or Australia. Also you don't go on a "hike," you go on "walk," and one of you favorite pasttimes wouldn't be "hiking," instead it'd be "tramping." So find yourself a good track to go for a walk and get tramping. That way you can see awesome things like this...

On Skipping Rocks

2009-11-25T17:46:00.000-08:00

Everybody likes to skip rocks. You're hanging out on the edge of a lake, looking for just the right rock... not too big, really flat and sits perfectly in your hand. We had the chance to spend some time doing just that today on our way from Te Anau to Queenstown. The only difference between you and us is that when we are skipping rocks, we were doing it here...

On the Photo Shy Natives and Trust

2009-11-25T01:38:00.000-08:00

Outside of our Milford Sound adventure this morning there were a few other things to report. We saw a wild kiwi crossing the road. It ran off into the forrest before we could throw an E-brake U-turn and get the cameras out. I know, I know, it didn't happen if there aren't pictures. Hence the post's title. In addition to the kiwi, we did the Te Anau glowworm cruise. This was pretty sweet and also unphotographed. There was some cool cave walking with low overhangs and rushing waterfalls. The glowworms themselves glow a nice blue-green and when you have enough of them together you can actually see by their light. The reflection in the water was also pretty cool. All in all, we saw them, a kiwi and the glowworms. They were awesome. And you'll just have to take our word on it.

On Waterfalls

2009-11-24T20:54:00.001-08:00

We went to Milford Sound today, and there are roughly 1,392,304,867 waterfalls within the Sound (which is actually a fiord since it was created by a glacier) alone. We had to jump back and forth from one side of the boat to the other just to see them all and to avoid the rain. Unfortunately, our cameras are not cabable of capturing every single waterfall in the same shot, so here are 4.

...And one more!

In addition to seeing lots a awesome waterfalls, they pretty much parked the boat under one so that you could feel it as well.

On Taking Photos

2009-11-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

Les is the king of taking photos. It's been 3 days, and he probably already has 800 photos taken. Ah, the digital world we live in. While Les is snapping shots left and right, I have balanced my time between my own photos and what is called a "moving photo".

We both have been having a blast playing around with a tiny HD video camera, and hopefully, when we get a chance to revisit and edit the video, some of the shots give a feel for what we are seeing out here.

On Staking a Claim

2009-11-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

Everything that I see from here will one day be my kingdom.

(This is taken from where Phil is standing in the "On the Size of the World" entry.)

On Photos for Mothers

2009-11-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

As my dad pointed out, there aren't any picutres of me up on the blog yet. There is a good reason for this, all pictures of me are on Phil's camera. To remedy this problem, I have stolen Phil's SD card (i.e., ask him politely for it) and you get this awesome shot of us from the first day while doing the Rainbow Reach part of the Kepler Track.

On the Size of the World

2009-11-24T00:54:00.000-08:00

It's small. That's really what this is about. Last night we were eating pizza and we ran into some people that lived in Los Altos. Seriously? We go just about as far away from California as you can get and we meet some folks that live 30 minutes away?

That's not a good enough example you say? You think that one more will show you that is truly a small world? Then why don't you pick up what I am about to put down. On our hike of huge proportions today we ran into some girls from North Carolina. Huh. Phil is from North Carolina. Still not good enough? How about if I told you that they grew up in the same small town that Phil did (Cary and Apex). Boom.

Small. World.

And since we're talking about Phil...

Another brief note about these Southern Bells we ran into. They were looking good even though they had been camping on the side of the roads for the last few days. Each was rocking a little bit of makeup and one obviously wouldn't be caught dead without some pearls. She had a couple of big ones in her earrings.

On The Last Hour

2009-11-24T00:43:00.000-08:00

Most of the tracks out here in Fiordland National Park are either out and backs or huge loops (like 40+ miles huge), so when you are crushed and broken like we were today, that last hour of tramping through brush that you have already seen is tough. Your feet are screaming at you, you're probably ready for a meal and a nap or bed and as mentioned before, you've already seen this stretch of the track. I'm not saying that these sections aren't amazing and awe inspiring, just that you've already had your awe inspired by them 8 hours earlier and the only thing you are going to be aweing at is a nice juicy bacon cheese burger. Done and done, BTW.

Pretty picture just because...

On Mistimed Meals

2009-11-24T00:16:00.000-08:00

Man... Fail on my part. There is about a two hour section of the Kepler Track that we did today that was more or less vertical. 3500+ feet gain over two hours. We were cruising up it on track to finish it in half the posted time, two-ish hours instead of four and a half. We were both starting to feel the pains of hours of hard tramping and not much to eat. We were shooting to try and clear the brush line before we stopped for lunch, but I was starting to see things that weren't there, like falcons dive bombing me, so I called a stop and we grabbed some chow. Not five minutes later we cleared the brush line and stumbled across this vista...

Needless to say I was disheartened and a bit bummed that we didn't get to eat our lunch looking out over this, but it turns out that amazing sights like this (and a bit of food) do wonders for sore legs and energy.

On Toast

2009-11-24T00:09:00.000-08:00

Phil is not capable of making toast. He burned it and caused two different smoke alarms in our hostel to go off. An epic win to start off the morning.

1 word...

2009-11-23T23:53:00.000-08:00

BROKEN. Our bodies hurt. A lot. It's day 3 in NZ, and we have been pushing aggressively. After ignoring the suggestion of jetlag, we have been moving forward at a blistering pace. This morning, Les' iPhone alarm decided to go off at 5:30, and it contributed greatly to a day haunted by fatigue. Jetlag? No sleep? Bah, no time for such hindrances. We had scheduled a hike, and by golly, it was going to be conquered.

We were going to try to do two hikes down by Manapouri, but one was only accessible via charter boat (runs NZ $350 by the way), so we decided to try something else. The hike we ended up choosing for this glorious day was part of the Kepler Track that began at a little above sea level at the control gates for the lake and climbed to about 1200 meters (that's roughly 4,000 ft. for you silly non-metric system Americans) where we would stop at the Luxmore Hut for a rest before coming back down. That faint snow covered peak way in the background... that's the one we hiked to from the car park this was taken from.

No. Big. Deal.

On the way up, I swear that I almost witnessed Les cry for the second time in my life. It was a challenging hike, but the views were the most spectacular that we probably have ever seen. At the top, you could see all of Middle Earth, and we even got to venture into some caves at the top.

As beautiful as the hike was, there is a penalty that came with it. We are sore. Mucho. We can't even walk. We are hunching over like 80 year olds, and our strong, powerful strides now resemble those of an infant taking its first steps. But onward ho. Milford Sound awaits tomorrow...as do more hikes.

On Falcons and Flying

2009-11-23T02:10:00.000-08:00

Sooooo, we were hiking today on part of the Kepler Track and decided to take some sweet pictures. Unknown to us, the native falcons were nesting close to the trail and objected to us taking picutres of their lovely countryside. Seriously, they tried to and succeed in running us off. We got dive bombed by the falcon twice. Twice. Screaching beak and deadly talons missing us by mere feet. Good thing Phil and I are (were) runners. We bolted. Oh and speaking of Phil, he can fly too...

On Sheep

2009-11-23T02:05:00.000-08:00

Everywhere. Litterally. These creatures are over running the countryside. If I go 5 waking minutes without seeing one, I start to think that something is wrong.

On Driving...

2009-11-23T02:02:00.000-08:00

It's not nearly as difficult as I was expecting it to be. No major mishaps yet. The worst thing that has happened is that Phil keeps turning on the windshield wipers when he is trying to signal for a turn and we keep trying to grab the seat belt from over the wrong shoulder. That and we have had a small need for a duct tape repair...

Day 2 - Seriously It's Only been Two Days

2009-11-23T01:43:00.000-08:00

For some reason it hasn't sunk in that we have only been here for two days. It's weird. It feels like we've been here for four or five days already. I think it is the fact that we're driving everywhere. Anyways, Day 2 has been every bit as successful as Day 1. We rolled out of Dunedin around noon thirty and got to Te Anau around 4. The drives are simply amazing. That is about all there is to it. It has been an absolute treat driving around the South Island.

After some dinner and some provisions procurement, we were ready to head out for our first hike in Fiordland. We did a portion of the Kepler Track (which is on of the Great Walks in New Zealand). We started at Rainbow Reach and trekked out to the first set of huts around Shallow Bay. It was absolutely amazing. We took a bunch of pictures.

We did a little trail running, some for fun, some out of necessity (see "On Falcons and Flying" for the necessary running story). Three hours later it's 9:00PM and it's still light outside. We make it back to our hostel and then grab some dinner at a pizza place that is open from 9am til "late" (which turns out to 10:15PM).

We got some busy days planned over the next few days. Time to hit the sack.

The New Blog "On ..." Segement

2009-11-23T01:39:00.000-08:00

We're gonna start adding some new content to the blog. The idea is to have something other than just the daily reviews, so we're going to have what I am calling the "On ..." segment. They'll be quick little notes about things we see or hear around town. They may be a sentence a picture or a paragraph. There maybe one every other day, or 5 in one day. We'll see. Look forward to it.

Time Travel and Day 1

2009-11-22T12:59:00.000-08:00

Touchdown in NZ. I never thought we'd get here, but after 13 hours to Auckland, watching 4 movies to mindlessly waste time, a 2 hour layover, and a 1 hour flight to Christchurch, we have made it! We got in at 8:30am on a Sunday, and our first order of business was to hop in a car and drive 6 hours. It might sound like we are idiots, but when you see some of the pictures and video that we got, you'll realize that we are, in fact, geniuses.

Our plan was to drive from Christchurch down to Dunedin (pronounced duh-knee-din) and spend the night there. This will get us closer to Fiordland National Park, where we plan to spend a good couple of days. We stopped in Oamaru along the way down to Dunedin, ate some crappy fried food (corn dogs, french fries, and mutton pies), and toured the little historic town. We checked out this pretty awesome little art gallery called The Forrester Gallery. They had an amazing steampunk show going on that would make Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing proud. Obviously, we kept getting distracted on our way down to Dunedin, took pictures of schtuff (like incredibly round boulder down on a beach) and ate a great dinner at Lone Star Steakhouse, which we concluded was the New Zealand version of Outback Steakhouse...but better.

We rounded out the evening with a hike down a massive sandy hill to a beach where we could watch yellow eyed penguins come back from the ocean after a long day's work. (If you check out the Google map, you can see exactly which sandy hill I ran down that Phil flew, almost literally" down.) It was gorgeous -- the waves were big, sea lions were sleeping on the beach, and we fortunately got to catch a few penguins make it on shore. Then we had to hike back up the sandy hill, and for a second, I thought Les was going to cry. But he was actually tearing up because he wished I was one of the many chicks that he could share this awesome experience with. Sorry to disappoint Les.

Well, we just woke up in Dunedin, and it's on to Fiordland National Park where the real fun begins. Not that we're not having fun right now, but seriously. This is going to be awesome.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-11-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

Phil and I are headed off to New Zealand and Australia today. Gonna be a long flight followed by a long drive followed by pure awesome. I think we can handle it. Next time you hear from us, we'll be on the other side... of the world!

Les