Up at Sealy Tarn

This is on the hike to the Mueller Hut. For trampers (backpackers) in NZ, you don't necessarily need a tent as they have limited spaces available in alpine huts. A tarn is a mountain lake. That's Mt. Sefton behind me and Mt. Cook to the right. Sefton appears to loom much higher, but Mt. Cook is still several miles away.

Mt. Cook from afar

This is a glacial valley that was carved out by the Tasman glacier. It dumps into Lake Pukaki which is a brilliant powder blue because of the "glacial flour"; as a glacier grinds rock into powder, the fine silt goes into the water. I hiked a couple hours to through grazing sheep to get up here. No tourists anywhere.

Pancake rocks at Punikaiki. My school report on the rocks at Punikaiki is as follows:
The Punikaiki Pancake Rocks were formed hundreds of thousands of years ago. Scientists today are still puzzled on exactly how they were formed.

Mt. Cook or Aoraki "Cloud-Piercer" at sunset

Lake Pukaki and the evaporation zone. I just coined that term, by the way. The place I stayed at was about 25 km from Mt. Cook, and was located in the shadows by the lake.

I encountered some sheep while hiking to this ridge. I was sneezing the whole way up because, apparently, I am allergic to them.

Mt. Cook and Lake Pukaki. Lakes Pukaki and Tekapo have a brilliant color, but are not clear because of glacial flour. It's kind of nasty, if you think about it.

Lake Tekapo and the Church of the Good Shepherd. Sort of looks like something out of Middle Earth.

Going to Arthur's Pass

I can't get enough of the mountains. Ha ha! Last week I headed to Mt Cook, or Aoraki "Cloud-Piercer" from Christchurch (or ChCh, apparently). It is the highest mountain in Australasia at 3755 meters. I'm not sure what defines "Australasia", but whatever. I went on a couple of day hikes to see the magnificent glacier valley and views of the ice-laden peaks. On the first day there wasn't anyone else on the four-hour hike except loads of sheep. From Mt Cook, I went to Queentown, which has been dubbed the "adrenaline capital of New Zealand" because I think the first commercial bungee-jump started there. They also offer skydiving, jetboating, rock climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, parasailing, and whitewater rafting. I took a daytrip (13 hours) to Milford Sound, a fiord that has been dubbed the "eighth wonder of the world" like hundreds of other places. It was drizzling and raining, but the waterfalls were quite impressive. But I couldn't join the hordes of tourists leaping from one side of the boat to the other side, to take pictures of the same looking waterfalls. Oh, what a spoil-sport. Anyways, it was then that I decided I wasn't going to do all the "must-do" tourist trips (traps). Back in Queenstown, I went on a couple of long day hikes. The second day I hiked to the top of Ben Lomond Peak, which is right over Queenstown. It was windy and hailing on top, but the 360 degree view was worth it. From Lake Wakatipu, it was about 4700 vertical feet to the top. I hiked along the ridge all alone. I thought I might get blown off in my billowing jacket. The past few days I've been at Fox Glacier for a couple nights and Franz Josef Glacier (last night). These places are on the west coast, where they get all the rain. Interestingly, this place has a rainforest that comes right up to the glacier. Who would have thought that could happen? I learned that these glaciers are actually growing, because of increased precipitation due to global warming. Yeah, pretty wierd. Right now I am in Greymouth, waiting for a bus to go to Arthur's Pass. It's on the cross-island highway between Greymouth and ChCh on the South Island. There are supposed to be some great hikes and vistas there. I think I'll be there for a few days.
So New Zealand has been pretty amazing so far. It has incredible views (if you've see the Lord of the Ring movies, then you know what I mean). It's really clean around here. There is hardly any litter to speak of on the road side. People are much more environmentally-friendly here than they are in Australia. In the South Island, there aren't really a lot of people here. There isn't a lot of traffic, aside from the tourists. My first impression is that the Maori culture does not suffer discrimination nearly as much as the Aboriginal culture in Australia. It's really an interesting relationship here. I was watch tv and there was a news program on that was entirely in Maori. Anyways, this is quite an interesting country. The weather is much colder and wetter than Australia, but the sights are well worth the visit.

A stuffed moa. This is the huge bird that was hunted to extinction by the Maori before the European settlers arrived. Scientist think these things didn't have many predators and just walked up to people, curious about them. The Maori came to New Zealand only about 500 years ago and found it to be plentiful of food. It wasn't until their abundant food source ran out that they had to compete with other tribes, and started a war-culture.

Christchurch's Cathedral Square. This is the largest city in the South Island at 330,000. There are stalls selling tourist junk and food in the mornings.

It's cold in New Zealand!

After three nights here in Christchurch, I'm headed to the mountains. Christchurch is a very "English"-looking city. It has that sort of reputation. There is a tram and a pretty stream (they call it a river) and stone buildings. Some of the telephone booths are red. There is a large botanical garden next to the city center, and the city center is Cathedral Square. There are a lot of "buskers" there during the day. "Buskers" is a term I've learned in Australia for street performers and the like that do things for money. They actually carry a license to busk.
The temperature here is colder than in Australia, but the latitudes are in the 40's which is sort of like Canada. The first day I got here was the coldest I've been since leaving San Diego, but today warmed up. I checked out the Canterbury Museum (Canterbury is the name of this province of which Christchurch is the capital) and the Christchurch Art Gallery. You know, there was a flightless bird here called the moa, which was like a really tall emu. It was killed to extinction about 500 years ago by the Maori. Interestingly, they have found no evidence of warfare here in New Zealand until the moas were extinct, suggesting communities lived in
relative peace until overpopulation lead to the extinction of a main food source, and people had to compete for limited resources. It also dispells the myth that "primative" cultures lived in "harmony with nature". What a load of crap. Given enough time, every culture would overpopulate and cause environmental catastrophes.
The Art Gallery had a lot of normal paintings as well as more modern art pieces. There were some really dark pieces that looked like they came out of a head shop or tatoo parlor.
In Christchurch, I could have purchased some beater cars for less than $2000. I saw one 1988 Toyota Corona (Corolla in the States) for $850, presumably running. Some of these are wagons that come with camping and cooking gear.

I should sort of come up with closing running commentary on Australia. What a cool country. I spent most of my time (four weeks) in Queensland which I found had awesome and diverse environments. It is sort of redneck, as my friend Paul (from Melbourne) described, but it's friendly like country-folk are. Sydney was pretty and fun for the New Year. Melbourne had a totally different feel. It did not seem as big and dark. Sydney was very culturally diverse (no Aboriginies, though), but Melbourne was far more diverse and integrated. I couldn't believe all the different foods you could buy in the food courts. In the States, I tend to see the major food franchises: McDonald's, Subways, Taco Bell (they don't have Taco Bell in Oz!), Burger King(Hungry Jack here), Wendy's, a pizza joint, and Chinese takeaway. Here, I've mostly noticed a million different Asian food places including Indian food, Malaysian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. It's that specific. And who's eating there? Not Asians, although there some. Mostly, it's Caucasians there. A lot of people just eat a sushi handroll for lunch. Well, that's what I noticed about Melbourne.
A lot of folks love their "footie" which is Aussie-rules Football. Paul showed me a tape of a game from back in '96. These guys play on a field that is elliptical with a length of over 150 yards. They don't wear any padding. They play with a ball that is larger than a football. They can run with the ball, but every 10 yards they have to bounce it off the ground. They can kick the ball or "hit it" (like an underhand serve in volleyball), but they can't pass it like in American Football. They play four quarters, each of which are 30 minutes long. It's a fast, fast game like soccer. Folks have loyalty to home teams, which are not as commercialzed as they are in the States. The big meal at a footie game is a pint of beer with a meat pie. This is like the meat pot pies in the States, except you can actually hold it and the stuff doesn't necessarily go running down your arm like a pot of hot oil.
Oh back on to food, what do people eat late at night returning from a bar? Oh, Sigdaddy's crew in Biloxi will probably pipe up with Taco Bell, right? No Taco Bell out here. Instead they have a lot of non-franchised "pizza & kebab" places. Great food. Kebabs in the states are meat on sticks. Here, as well as in Europa, they're Gyros. They have chicken, beef, and lamb. The difference between Australia and Europa is that they'll add cheese on top and the bread is thinner, not like the thick bread in the States. And another thing, I've always referred to the pita bread wrap as "falafel". Here they call falafel something that looks like a dark brown hush puppy. It's a mixture of chick peas, parsley, and garlic. I've had loads of meals of kebabs, fish & chips, and Asian food in Australia, so that's what I've ended up talking about: food. Okay, more about food. Vegemite is a dark brown (chocolate colored) salty spread that you have to use spariingly. It's a good source of vitamin B, so people say you should spread it thinly on some toast the morning after a night out. It's salty but good. My last thought for the night: Bundaberg & Cola on tap. What a lovely concoction of mollasses and caramel. I could drink it as a soft drink, except I would be persistently drunk.

There are fabulous reefs along the Great Ocean Road except the waves would wash you against the rocks.

Sunsetting in the bush of Australia. "Bush" refers to anywhere in the countryside.

Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road. These things used to be arches that got hollowed out by the waves and then finally, the arches collapsed leaving these towers.

I met Paul and Ceri with Kev while travelling from the Greek Islands to Istanbul a couple years ago. They were on their 6-month RTW trip at the time. I spent my last days in Oz with this great couple.

Melbourne at night from the Prince Bridge. The Yarra River divides this city. It is a fun city to spend time in and has many wonderful places to visit. It is very clean and diverse and is home to Paul and Ceri!

Paul and I cooking up an Australian Barbie. Bundy in hand.

Leaving for New Zealand.

Last week I went down to Cronulla, which is a small suburb 25mi south of Sydney. This is where Fineberg had spent his 10 month fellowship in Australia two years ago. It's a cool beach community that has a strong surfing heritage. I got to meet up with Fineberg again and actually had a conversation I could follow. His friend Mattie, invited me to stay with him and his girlfriend Allie. These guys were great people.
From Cronulla, I took the overnight bus to Melbourne. This one was only 12-hours long. Well, during my 18-hour bus ride from Brisbane to Sydney, I was freezing on the bus. This time, the air-conditioning was broken. Awwwwwesome. It was a sauna. Outside, it was freezing. I was soaked and ten pounds lighter when I arrived in Melbourne.
Melbourne is Australia's second largest city, but it has an eclectic atmosphere with good architecture, food, and culture. I spent a lot of time wandering the streets. The Deaflympics was going on so there were a lot of people signing. That was pretty cool.
In Melbourne, I stayed with Paul and Ceri, a couple Kev and I met when an overnight ferry failed to show up on one of the Greek Islands. We travelled together to Istanbul and spent a lot of time together. These guys were fantastic. They put me up in their home and fed me and took me out on the town, visiting some of the sights in the area.
We went to Williamstown and took a ferry to St. Kilda, both bayside communities around Melbourne. At St. Kilda, we watched a Deaflympics women's volleyball match between the Australians and the Americans. The Australians did well, but not well enough. Um...I think the teams were mismatched, in skill and in the weight class... Paul and Ceri also took me on the Great Ocean Road, one of the great drives in the world. It hugs along the southern coastline where the ocean has been eating away at the Victorian coast. This leaves beautiful arches and towers in the surf.
I'm headed New Zealand in a few hours. It has been awesome being in Oz.
Thanks to everyone I've met here. See ya in New Zealand!

Mattie and Allie. Before coming to Cronulla, I didn't know them, but these awesome people let me stay at their place and fed me. Matt is starting a line of Aussie underwear called "Mojo Down Under". Expect them out in a year.