On to the West Coast Continued and Fox Glacier

Here's a few videos starting on the train to the West Coast of the South Island (Greymouth), then driving down to Fox Glacier and our time there.

Christchurch Continued and On to the West Coast

Here's some videos of the Giant Christmas Tree and Christchurch Cathedral:




I did have videos of our boat ride with hundreds of thousands of jellyfish and dolphins jumping all around and beautiful views, but unfortunately I can't upload it.One thing that was pretty funny was how many famous-people-imposters there were. Among others, I saw Matt Damon, Paton Manning, Elijah Wood, Tom Sawyer, and a Wizard.
After finishing with Cathedral Square, we drove over to meet one of my dad's good friends (Mr. Pickering) from a long time ago. They had two kids my age, and it was nice to have somebody to talk to after nearly a month. We had dinner at their house and stayed for a while. For dinner we got our first taste of New Zealand Pizza and experienced the height (so far) of New Zealand's outrageous prices. An example was the chicken and apricot pizza (it had a very interesting taste) - Pizza Hutt charged us something like 15$ for a "large" (the "large" was like 10" diameter). After dinner I got to try out Michael (the younger one)'s guitar - an Epiphone SG, and that was pretty cool. We stayed pretty late until we had to go back to the motel.

The next day Mr. Pickering came over and gave us a scenic tour of Christchurch, which was pretty cool. One thing that took me by surprise was a Maserati dealership that was bigger than the one in Newport Beach. After lunch, my dad took Haylie, Keiren and I to a place called Adrenaline Forest. That was awesome! It's basically an enormous sort of obstacle course involving tight-ropes, flying foxes (ziplines), rope swings and dozens of other different kinds of rope course obstacles you have to do, suspended high in the air. I don't really know how to explain it better. There are six courses, each one harder and higher up than the last. The first one was easy and just a practice one. You have two carabeeners that you have to have hooked on to the safety line at all times (they're pretty strict about that) while you climb through the forest on all sorts of different obstacles. The first 2 courses were easy, but by the time we got to
number 5, I was barely making it from one tree to the next, they were pretty intense. Also, the end of the 5th one was about 100 feet high, which made a 60 foot uphill tightrope walk fairly scary. Unfortunately, we didn't really get any good videos or pictures. We do have a few videos though - I'll try to get them up later. We just finished the 5th course by the time the place closed, so I never got to do number 6. Next time we come down, we're definitely going to do that again.
After we finished with Adrenaline Forest, we rested for a bit at the motel before the Pickerings picked us up to go to a nice Thai Restaurant (it was Mrs. Pickering's birthday). It was a very nice dinner, and afterwards we had our traditional group photo and said goodbye.

We got up really early the next morning to get on the next big train ride across the South Island to the West Coast. The train goes through the Southern Alps and Arthur's Pass, which I've heard are incredible sights. We didn't find out until after an hour of waiting for the train to go that we wouldn't be riding that day. We were told that there was a train accident on the track just out of town - they said there was a problem because "the train didn't stop for a car". We found out later that it was actually a pedestrian - some lady was walking her dog on the train tracks. The engineer blasted his horn three times and there was nothing he could do when the lady just wouldn't get out of the way. Well, that made a big problem for us because the train people were just going cart us off on buses. There was no way we were doing that - four hours on a big bus on a winding mountain road. So we decided to stay in Christchurch for an extra day and shorten our time in Fox Glacier. We went to the Christchurch museum, which was pretty cool, and went kayaking again.


We relaxed the rest of the day and prepared to redo that morning's adventures the next day.
But luckily for us, the train left on schedule. And boy what a train ride. It was incredible! The whole time there was beautiful views. We crossed an enormous bright blue river several times that looked just like the Anduin and witnessed the Southern Alps, named with good reason. Also there were dozens of scenes that looked just like Rohan.





There are dozens and dozens of pictures from the train ride, so these are in no particular order.

This one is a picture of the strangest trees I've ever seen - like something from Dr. Seuss...

This post has too many pictures, so I'll continue later with another post. If I had been smart, I would have made a slide show... oh well...

Christchurch

Our first day in the South Island was a long day of traveling. We got up really early to go to the ferry station, but when we got there, it looked like we had a cruise ship for a ferry - it was huge! My mom had given me that scopolamine patch, and I knew after just one hour on the open ocean that if it weren't for that patch, the fish would have had a nice meal of blended eggs and sausage. Unfortunately that meant that I was tired and a bit whoopdeedoosy (if you know what I mean), so I didn't get to enjoy the boat ride itself until halfway through when I got myself a mountain dew on one of the ship's several restaurant/cafes. My dad and I decided to go up to the very top of the boat. The wind was so strong up there that I could stand backwards at a 60 degree angle and be completely supported - that was really fun.Those pics are while we were going through the Marlborough Sounds - a labyrinth of islands and straits and stuff like that.
We got off the ferry at Picton on the South Island and had lunch there while waiting for the train. For a six hour train ride I was expecting a big smooth riding Amtrak or something like that, but what we got was a small wobbly old train that felt like it was gonna rock right of the tracks at high speeds. You kinda got used to it though, the ride was nice, and the scenery was awesome. They had these really cool open air cars, too, that were just that - completely open and hardly anything to stop you from just jumping (or falling) off. We rode right along the beach for a while and got to see a bunch of black-sand and even penguin beaches.
It doesn't sound like much but that wore me out, and when we got to our hotel in Christchurch, I was exhausted.
The next day we wandered around Christchurch and Cathedral Square, and that was pretty cool. First we walked along the Avon River and found a cheap kayaking place, so we did that for a little while.Next we walked through the Botanical Gardens of Hagley Park. There were tons of ancient trees, including a christmas tree the size of a several story building that you could walk around inside, and an even bigger sequoia.
Near Cathedral Square was Ernest Rutherford's museum - actually in and around his actual laboratory and the lecture hall he actually taught in - that was pretty cool.
Cathedral Square was very cool. It is the tourist and historical center of Christchurch. All the buildings are early 19th century made from hewn stone in Old English style. There are performances, shops, markets, giant-life-sized chess games, wizard blatherers (a guy dressed in a complete wizard suit stands in the square and shouts nonsense to anybody who'll listen) and an enormous 150 year old Christchurch Cathedral, the icon of the city, all in the Square.
That is the Christchurch Cathedral. We decided to climb up to the top of the bell tower (the tall thing on the left). That was slightly creepy - the stair was the narrowest, tightest, steepest spiraling staircase that went up pretty high. I wouldn't have known what to do if somebody had come back down while we were going up, because there was not enough room for anybody to pass by.
I'll continue this post later, so check again later!

Done travelling.... For a Little While

(I found a video I missed from Rotorua, so check back at the post "Last day at the Beach House"
We had to leave the bach at Taupo early because we had a long drive ahead of us. We drove until lunch time, where we stopped at a restaurant that was across the street from New Zealand's World War II museum. Unfortunately, the museum cost way to much, so we didn't get to see that, but we still had lunch at the restaurant. I was hungry, and a burger sounded really nice, so that's what I ordered. I didn't find out until my "burger" arrived that it was Thai restaurant. That may be the strangest thing I've ever tasted. The buns were cheese bagels, the sauce was a sweet'n'sour sauce, instead of tomato or onions there were carrots, and the patty was pork meat. The menu showed a picture of a nice, normal burger. It wasn't entirely bad, just.... strange. We continued driving until late afternoon, but before we arrived in Upper Hutt, we stopped at the coolest park ever. You see, the parks in New Zealand have much more fun equipment than in the States because they don't care if anybody gets hurt, they don't have to worry about getting sued. But the piece of equipment that really took the cake was the hamster wheel. Instead of explaining, I'll show you a video. I know we all look like idiots, but its still funny.

It was at this park that I busted my knee. We were jumping these fences at the park, and one time my foot that was planted for the jump slipped out from underneath me and kaBlam'd into the fence, with the full force of my run onto my knee. It hurt really bad, and it looked really gross. I couldn't walk one bit. In the rest of the car ride to my Nana's house, I felt every single bump in the road. I know its not just a bruise, because two weeks later it is still very painful and I can just walk. I was relieved to know that we wouldn't have to move for 2 weeks once we got to my Nana's house in Upper Hutt.

I've noticed that there is alot more entertaining advertising in New Zealand. We went to a shop and a guitar was hanging on the wall. There was no information about the guitar's specs - The tag read "This is an awesome guitar". A cereal box had, in the logo, "pick me - I'm better than (so and so brand)". "Faith Church - A Place for Christians". When we were driving through a place that was particularly middle-of-nowhere, we came across an enormous sign that said "Pony Poo! 50 cents a bag". A discussion somehow began in the car about that, when Keiren finally requested Haylie to roll up the window. Haylie laughed, and, thinking that Keiren had been mistaken the whole time, told her "Keiren, its not actually, poo, its chocolate candy". The signs were advertising for manure. We joked that Haylie would buy a box of "chocolate candies" for here friends and have them sent over to America. :)
We didn't do much in Upper Hutt. This was our time to try and catch up in schoolwork and look after my Nana. We did get to go to a park that had a flying fox (zipline), and that was pretty fun.

I finally finished the third binding of the blade book, those are verygood books. I need book four! Several days after my knee getting busted, I was hobbling across the living room, and suddenly my knee made a loud POP and a tingle shot through my leg. But then my knee felt alot better, I could extend it to almost 160 degrees. Unfortunately my asthma has been going byzerk here at my Nana's house, I almost had to go to hospital (they don't use articles sometimes here). One day we went to the water place - a public pool with a wavepool, lazy river and kiddy slides. We went to my dad's old church on Sunday. There was a huge upheaval there recently, resulting in no leadership, so the "meeting" was pretty haphazard. The musicians were very good though - I think its safe to say that the bassist was better, maybe much better, than Sean Curran at our church back home, and it was cool to listen to. Another day, my Nana was cleaning out the garage a little bit. I was doing school when a point was pressed in my back and a gruff voice told me to put my hands up. I turned and found my Nana pointing a toy gun at my back. It was kinda cool looking, so I showed my dad. I didn't know that it wasn't a toy gun, and neither did my Nana. Apparently it was my grandpa's gun he used to shoot the rats with. My own grandma had pointed a real gun that was loaded at my back. My dad took me out and we did some target practice, which was kinda cool.
We're now packing to leave to the South Island. This marks the halfway point of our trip! Just three more weeks left...

The City of Stench

We saw some pretty cool things in our second day in Rotorua. This was actually the town were my dad was born. We went to see his house but it had been torn down and a new one built in its place (it was a very old house). First thing after leaving the hotel, we played a fun little minigolf game, and even Maia had a go.

Next we went to another Maori place, a Maori town that's open to tourists and guided tours are given there. It's name is longer than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, so we just called it by its abbreviation, "whaka" (wh is pronounced f in maori). This town was special because it is situated on and in a high geothermal activity area. It was very cool to see all the ways the maori used the the hotpools created there for the past 300+ years. The water is superheated from the magma below. All of the pools were boiling, some quite violently. The average temperature of the pools at the surface was 80-130 degrees Celsius (about 175-265 degrees Fahrenheit), and one pool, the main pool of the town and the hottest one, had a temperature of 200 degrees Celsius (about 390 degrees Fahrenheit). Also, the water is perfectly pure, with several having different healthy minerals naturally dissolved in them. The Maori's there don't have a very high water bill.

That's the main one, its pretty cool looking.



The big box thing in the pic above is called by the children a "Maori Microwave", and that's where they cook their food. Then we saw one of the geysers go off, which was pretty cool, although it was the small one, shooting 3-7 meters (about 10-25 feet). The big one can go up to 60 meters sometimes (about 180 feet).

Oh, and the whole time the place stunk to high heaven. I don't know how these people get used to the smell. Another interesting thing about this place is that it sports the thinnest crust on the earth. Some parts of the earth's crust are only one foot thick here. Tourists were warned to stay on the designated path.Then we saw another cultural experience show, pretty much the same as the night before's (only not quite as good).


After that we went to the park that actually had exploded two weeks before. That made me feel great while we were walking through it. The park was cool though because of all the natural modpots there. For those of you who don't know, mudpots are where gas bubbles up out of the ground through mud, making large comical bubbling mud blops all day long.


You can see by the color of the mud that the sulfur content was high there. And that ended our time in Rotorua.
We drove for a few hours down to Taupo. Maybe sometime I'll show a map with all the places we visited. On the way we stopped to see Huka Falls. That was an impressive sight. At the point before the falls, water goes from a large river to very narrow channel and is dumped off the falls. But its not like a normal waterfall. The water is launched hundreds of feet out. It was the fastest moving and most chaotic water I've ever seen, and it was spectacular. It was also quite scary - if somebody fell in, it is guaranteed they will die.

The batch (vacation house) we were staying in (thanks to great aunt Elizabeth and great uncle Alan) was a block away from Lake Taupo. Lake Taupo is an enormous extremely deep lake that was formed when the volcano it used to be blew itself up thousands of years ago. The explosion was actually the biggest eruption known to man (so I read), and was heard and recorded by people in India and China. Enough ash blew out to cover the entire country of New Zealand 45 meters (150 feet) deep. Now water fills the volcano, and its deep enough that it could be used for submarine activity. There's volcanic rock all around. We went down to throw rocks and check out the lake after dinner. We were quite surprised when the rocks we threw floated on top of the water. We didn't think anybody would believe us, so we took a video the next day. Unfortunately, it was extremely windy the next day. It was kinda hard to actually see the rocks on the camera, but we eventually got it.

I'll try to catch up with the rest of our trip up 'til the present, but we're leaving to the South Island for a week tomorrow, so I might not be able to update until after we get back.
It's really nice being here, but I do miss seeing everybody. Wish you all were here!

Last day at the Beach House

Unfortunately, the night before our last day at the beach house, Maia fussed all night long, and I woke up at 5 in the morning and didn't fall asleep again until 7. When I finally got up, everybody was already at the beach, so it was quiet in the house. I was very happy when I found that Uncle Phil let us use his computer. Among other things, I found that an ebay customer was unhappy, and had to deal with that.
After lunch, Uncle Phil, Aunt Christine and the family packed up and left. It was nice to see them, but it was also kind of nice to have the house to ourselves again. We read some more of that Percy Jackson book, and when the tide was out, we went down to the beach for the last time. I practiced tricks and even did a jump once. At the end I rode a wave even better than the first one. I could write a whole post on that ride. But I won't. It was too awesome.
One thing I can't stand about New Zealand is all the bugs. They're everywhere! I killed 82 flies in 4 days at this house, and the crickets are 2 inches long, fat and black.
Also, it appears that allergies I never knew I had, a bad cold and horrible asthma are teaming up to kill me. I guess there's a price to pay for being in an awesome place...
Speaking of colds and flies, we have funny names for things - catching a cold and killing flies.... how come you never hear of somebody getting a bad case of the warm or having to kill those pesky swims?
The next day we packed and cleaned the house and left by lunch time. It was sad to say goodbye to the place. On the way we passed through a town called Te Puke (pronounced "tay poo kee"), and it was very entertaining looking at the town signs.

We drove and didn't get to Rotorua until nearly dinner time. While driving, however, we knew we were getting close to the town because we started to smell a horrible stench. The smell comes from the sulfur gas coming out of the ground in the hotpools and mudpots. We got to the hotel but had to almost immediately leave to the Maori Dinner and Show Cultural Experience. It sounds funny, but it was actually very cool and interesting. First, we got to see a hangi, which is a large dinner of lamb, chicken, potatoes and kumara (sweet potato) cooked in an underground oven. That was our dinner, and it was cooking while we watched. Next we went to the spring nearby, which was incredibly clear. Then a group of Maori warriors rowed up a river in a war canoe.

We followed them to the show, which was pretty cool. A Maori Chief basically described a whole ton of things about the Maori culture and things the Maoris do. It was also nice because they didn't take themselves way too seriously like some of the Indian tribes in America do. The warriors performed a whole ton of traditional things (not quite sure what the word is for that).


The last one there is the warriors doing the Ha Ka, a war dance meant both to intimidate enemies and welcome visitors (I apologize again for the poor quality).


Next we had our dinner, which was very good. We had water during the dinner, but I didn't know until afterward that the water was collected from the source of the spring, the same one we walked along earlier, with nothing added or changed. After dinner, we went on a bush walk in the dark through the bush, looking at native plants and the glow worms on them, which was very cool.
We got back very late, and found that our hotel had free internet. I realized that I might be able to find Lost on youtube, and I was happy when we were able to watch one of the episodes we missed. Unfortunately, though, that meant that I didn't get to sleep until nearly 3 am L.A. time.

I love Te One

This place is awesome. It is so nice to wake up to the sun rising out of the sea. I sat in bed for a long time reading a good book and listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. When I finally got up, everybody wanted to go down to the beach for an early morning swim. I was tired from several days at the beach and Maia waking me up in the night, so I decided to take a break from the beach. I walked down to the sand just to check out the beach, and it turned out that it was a good day to take a break. The waves were massive and closer together or more frequent then I've ever seen waves before. Uncle Phil was the only one brave enough (or dumb enough :) ) to go in, and he said that it was strange - one moment you'd be standing ankle deep the next the water would be over your head. Later, Uncle Phil broke a string on the guitar he brought with him, and, not having anything else to do, decided to go and get a new one. I came along so I could ride in his car - a Holden (New Zealand's GM) Commodore SV6. It was awesome. We found that the nearest place that sold guitar strings was in a town on the other side of the hill, and the road there was a long winding mountain road, normally a half hour drive (or more). It only took us 20 minutes. He drove really fast and aggressive the whole time - at one part we reached 160 kph (about 100 mph) - which was really fun, but by the end I was really sick. I barely made it home, and it took an hour for me to feel normal again.

There's Keiren and Georgia trying to catch a free ride (sorry about the bad quality, its from the video camera).
After lunch we went and used the kayaks they brought with them at the estuary. I didn't want to at first, but it was kind of fun, if hard work. After that I learned how to play cricket, which looks interesting.
We got back a little before dinner time, but my dad and Uncle Phil wanted to try skimming again, even though the waves looked a bit the same as the morning. I came along just to watch, but after one minute, I realized that the beach was actually very good. So good, I had to sprint back to get my swim suit on. And yet, when I got back.... it was even better than I had thought! after ten minutes, for the first time in my life, I rode a wave. I sprinted out, happened to get lucky with the timing, hit a three foot wave, curved around on the face, and got pushed back onto the sand. It. Was. Incredible!! I was so happy! It is really amazing though how much you improve by practicing every day.
After dinner, Uncle Phil created a treasure hunt game, where presents were waiting at the end. I got a bag of chocolates that you can't get anywhere except New Zealand, which are the best chocolates ever.
It's interesting, I've noticed that even after just a few days of being here, some words I involuntarily pronounce with a slight NZ accent. Of course, everyone here thinks we have the strong American accents, but after six weeks, I wonder what everybody back home will think of how I talk...
The next day, my dad, Uncle Phil and I ran down to the beach for an early morning board meeting. The surf was almost identical to the night before, although cold, and I sort of caught a few waves (though none as good as the first one), which is so awesomely gratifying (I actually sort of did it with my old yellow, too). After we got back, we all went on a hike to the top of Mt. Paku, the strange pointed one I mentioned before. The were some awesome views from the top. We didn't have the camera, but we did have the video camera.

We learned about a GeoCache worldwide sort of treasure hunt game and I found the cash box hidden a few years ago. After lunch we drove to Cathedral Cove, which was very cool, because that's where the scene in Prince Caspian where the train station turns into a beach was filmed.

We stayed there for a while, then went to a beach called Hot Water Beach. It's called that because of there are large pools of water two km underground that are heated by magma near them, and water seeps up from these pools onto the beach. If you go when the tide's out and dig a hole in the sand, hot water fills up. The water is anywhere between 30 and 60 degrees Celsius (85 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit). Some spots are warmer than others though, and if the water gets too hot, either step out or wait for a wave to come. It was very cool, I would say it is a must-do for someone visiting New Zealand.

Land of the Brilliant Sunrise

Our first full day in Tairua was a fabulous day. I woke up nice and early (still on LA time) and watched the sunrise, which was beautiful. I went down to the beach to take a better picture but nearly froze my feet off, so I had to be content with a picture from upstairs...After breakfast, I went down to the beach to check out the surf. What I found made me jump for joy: The waves were about 3-5 feet high, built up from about 30 feet away, and crashed at the perfect reaching distance away. On top of that, the beach was steep and the water was warm. Everything came together to make the most perfect conditions ever (even better than Aliso because the water was warm). I ran back and told everybody, but my parents wouldn't let me go alone because there was a bit of a rip, so I had to wait for everybody. It was 45 minutes before I got back to the beach, only to find the most dramatic change in surf I've ever seen. The waves had become about 8 feet tall (with occasional 1 foot) and built up and crashed 150-200 feet out. There were still a few waves I might have been able to get, but were continually followed by 8 footers, so I kept hesitating and missing them. In one hour, I only got 2 rides, both in which I wiped out so hard my head hurt.Later in the day my Great Aunt Elizabeth and Great Uncle Alan came and visited us, who I hadn't seen since last we came to NZ. By the way, people here don't say the letter z as "zee", it's pronounced "zed" -- it feels weird saying "en-zed". Anyways, they brought cookies, fruits, boogieboards and other nice things with them, which was nice of them.
We went back to the beach later and found that it was like it had been the day before - flat and good for flatland tricks. I was very happy when, after dozens of times failing, I was able to do a shuvit mid ride in deep water and keep going. My dad also tried skimboarding and is getting better. We didn't really do anything the rest of the day, except read a little more of that Percy Jackson book, which is actually pretty good.
The next day also started with a brilliant sunrise. I guessed I'd have to get used to that here. It was my Great Uncle Alan's 72nd birthday, but we didn't do much except check out the estuary which emptied out on the beach near us. Wasn't much swimming, but it was really warm.Later, my 1st cousins once removed (we just call them aunts and uncles) Uncle Phil and Aunt Christine and second cousins Georgia and Caleb came to stay at the house for a few days. After unpacking they immediately wanted to go to the beach. Tide wasn't quite out yet, so we swam and body surfed until it was. My Uncle Phil wanted to try out skimming, and was actually pretty good right from the start. Later we barbecued up some lamb and fish, during which I found that burnt blood doesn't smell very nice (I sliced my finger open). Dinner was amazing though... there's nothing in the world quite like New Zealand lamb chops. The ginger beer was better than I've ever had before as well.
One thing I am extremely unhappy with that I just found out about is that I won't be able to watch any of our tv shows we'll be missing on the internet here. It turns out that shows like Lost and Survivor air several seasons after they do in America. It also turns out that abc and cbs don't want people in New Zealand watching episodes ahead of what's being aired here. Apparently there is a way to anonymize your browser so they can't find your location, but I would have no idea how to do that. So I guess I just have to wait until we get back...

The Beach House

Day 2 started our time at the beach house in Tairua, on the Coromandel Peninsula. Man was it a sweet place. It had 270 degrees of awesome views of the beach and the hills around us. The sand was just a short walk away - less than 200 feet. The house was huge, too, everybody could've gotten their own room. The first picture is from the upstairs window, and the second one is Keiren laying down on my bed, which had a really nice view.
After unpacking and settling down, we decided to check out the beach. I was so happy at what I saw, I sprinted back and got my board. The tsunami several days before had created a steep slope at first, but then a long flat section of sand appeared when the tide was out that made flatland very nice. Unfortunately, I didn't really get any good pics...
In the background of the second picture is Mt. Paku, the result of volcanic activity in the area.
I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but it felt weird passing a Maserati, a Ferrari, and a Porsche Panamera in New Zealand....
I'll continue updating on our trip so far, so check back again later!