I had a few days in Singapore, full of rain mostly, it was an amazingly modern city. It was like east meets west. I spent most of my time in huge shopping malls and the subway system. All kinds of people live here, every nationality. It is very clean and well organized, and had great food at the hawker markets. You could get any version of Asian food you wanted for just a few Singapore dollars. I stayed in a 18 bed dorm room hostel and shopped for a few things that I needed before going to New Zealand. I was going to spend more time here but the rain was getting me down so I changed my flight and flew out 2 days early. I arrived in NZ and spent the first week buying my van and gathering some camping supplies. It also took about a week to get used to the price of things here as well after being in Asia so long!
Craig has just came and paid me a visit in New Zealand for two weeks. I told him that it was not gonna be all fun and games, he had to write a report on what we did so he better pay attention. Here is his report, not sure how I should grade him yet any suggestions would be good! (He did end it well)
I left for my big trip to meet big Bro in Auckland. It was the longest flight I have ever taken by myself. It was about 13 hours from Vancouver to Auckland. I walked through the gate and seen Brandon waiting.
Our first destination was Lake Taupo witch is the biggest lake in all of New Zealand and Australia. We stayed in a backpackers hostel just off the lake. The same day we had a little time till sundown. So we went to do some rapids jet boating down the only north flowing river in NZ. Our boat driver was a good driver. I sat right beside him. He did some "sweetas" 360 power turns missing rocks and trees by inches. The boat had a V8 700 horsepower engine. We would jump rapids heading north up river. As we were traveling he would stop and give us a little info about how the lake was formed. In the 1800's a volcano blew itself up and formed Lake Taupo. He also said that the 20 foot river banks where made of the volcanic ash from the eruption.
From there we went to Napier a wine producing town along the ocean. The first place I surfed. All I did was bodysurf on Brandon's board. But it was a blast. That night we where just wandering around and Brandon said lets go to a vineyard tour. So we went to go park and there was this big line up? I though it was kinda crazy but I went along with it. While we where waiting to get into the vineyard something in my pocket moved. I looked down and there was 2 tickets to Jack Johnson. I was pumped! We got right up front to see Mat Costa, who was opening for Jack. While Brandon and I where waiting we heard a couple of guys talking about Edmonton. Then a guy beside us said something about Brandon from Edmonton. Brandon jumped in and said " Hey I m Brandon from Morinville" and the other guy said "I am Brandon from Morinville. "Actually Cardiff" then the two Brandon's started talking and we thought he was just joking around. But he was not we actually meet another Brandon from Morinville. What a small world. The concert was good he played for an hour and a half and came out for an encore by himself.
After the big excitement of Jack Johnson we headed for Gisborne to do some surfing. I had rented a mini-mal to try to get the hang of getting up on a board. That night we just puled off to the side of the road right beside the ocean to sleep, cooked pasta on the beach and went for a nice scenic hike up an ocean-side cliff. We surfed the next day and met an old surfer instructor named Frank, who rented boards and wet suite out of his old toyota van.
After that we started into the east cape. The area was more of a farmers area. There was sheep on the roads and cows on the beach and waves in the ocean. We had arrived late that night and stayed at an RV Park with spray panted pet sheep running around used as a lawn mowers. the next day we went to a old historic light house that is still in use. It was about a 25 min hike to the top. Its the eastern most lighthouse in the world.
The next big stop we showed up in is Rotorua. We had showed up late, so we drove around looking for another RV park. The next morning we went and did the free fall extreme,witch is a big fan that is holding you up in the air and is like ski-diving. We also did the Luge, which is a downhill concrete track that we rode small carts down! It was fun we got going pretty fast and there was a chairlift to take you back up!
About an hour down the Big old highway is a town called Mount Maunganui.
We drove around to check out the surf scene. That afternoon we rented another board for me. It was some pretty good surfing out there Just so good that Brandon had to go get the camra to captuer the moment. I had handed Brandon the keys in the worst place you could lose them.Yup! he dropped the keys in the big blue. Then Brandon threw his board on the beach to quickly grab the keys but the waves had barried them.
when Brandon had threw the board he put a crease on the top of his board. Brandon had tried to go break into the van with a stick and got in. It was a good thing we had another key cut in the van.So for the rest of the afternoon Brandon fixed his board. the fallowing day we went for a hike up the Mount Maunganui. It was about a half hour to the top. At the top you could see the whole coastline for miles. We had found out that the spot that we where surfing a english tourist had drowned the day before and the body was still not found. It was kinda freaky surfing in the same spot and there being a body floating around.
Then we headed up north to a beach that was called the hot water beach in the Coromandel Peninsula. The beach was heated by an underground hot spring. You could dig your own little hot pool in the sand, but when we went it was high tide. But you could still feel the hot sand on your feet. Only a few inches down into the sand and it would get so hot you had to jump out.
Now starting our trip back to Auckland we had to stop for one more good surf in a world famous surf area. A little town called Raglan. It was pretty small but had powerful left braking waves that where barlling over the rock bottom shore line. All that day I stayed in the van watching pro locals riding deep in the tube and Brandon getting washed in the cycle. After that I went for the last surf of the trip and then headed for Auckland the City of Sails.
Today we went and walked around Auckland looking at all the nice yachts. Then we headed for an underground aquarium that was in an old sewage main. Kelly Tarlton was a diver that wanted people to see what it looked like to go diving in the deep blue. So he bilt this aquarium that we could walk through because of the clear glass hallway right through the center of it. It had sharks and stingrays that where only a few feet away from you, over head.
I really enjoyed my time in New Zealand, and met lots of neat people. Brandon is the coolest guy in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Northern Hemisphere it turns out.
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