my beat is correct

Not much more to report. And I'm thinking its too much anyway to continually update. Not too much work just too much, ya know? Who wants to know everything? I should say that'd be a real bore. After all, once you are settled in to life in a new place, its hardly exciting travel. Its just the same as at home. Work, down time, social bits, sleep, eat, work, etc... All the same struggles exist. Its just all some place different. And that's what's nice about it. Just readjusting, reinventing, recycling... its the change of scenary that's refreshing.

Here are a few pics from Greta's work party. It was straightforward fun.

drop it like its hot

Oz is going. I'm still trying to suss out what life is going to be like here for a year. It's beautiful and so bloody hot. Now that I finally have a way to get around - a red bandit scooter - I'm getting the lay of the land and its v. cool. The Gold Coast basically runs a course of beaches and islands around the Nerang River. I'm meant to go hiking in the mountains in a few weeks which should prove exciting.

Last weekend went to a party on Tambourine Mountain which had an amazing view of the coast - much like looking at LA from Mulholland. Next weekend is a day at the races.

I have a few pictures and I hope to take more before posting any. This seems rushed because it is. I still to do not have my laptop here. But I've got everything else now. A flat, a bed, a scooter, a job (woo hoo - Berlin Lounge - just until I find industry work), and a bit of a social life... It all doesn't matter because its just so pleasant to ride down the coast. Wish y'all were here...

New Zealand... conclusions...

Photos to come...

I could do a day to day, blow by blow but that would be boring and not very nostalgic. So here's NZ...

- DIVERSE landscape - sea change, altitude, remote lakes, party towns, rock formations, fiords, glaciers
- DIVERSE weather - freezing before the sun comes up, blazing hot sometimes (no ozone above NZ at this point), windy as hell in the mountains
- Kiwis = Canucks - seriously found that the people of NZ are much like Canadians
- North Island = sheep, farms, possums, sulfur, volcanos, Auckland, surfing
- South Island = sheep, farms, possums, giant mountains, glaciers, penguins, extreme sports, drinking
- Kiwis hate possums - they run them over or shoot them on site because its legal (actually seems like its illegal not to since they were an introduced animal and they are ruining the ecosystem)
- New Zealand is expensive and since its so damned remote its not very easy to do anything
- The huts are v. cool - on the tracks (on which you tramp) there are huts that you must book in order to sleep comfortably in the mountains or whatever - you will meet people from all over the world. We were the only Canadians we knew of - mostly, Aussies, Israelis, Germans and Japanese
- NZ loves skateboarders - no matter how small the town there was always a skatepark which made Darren and Ken very jealous
All in all, New Zealand was an amazing experience and I'd go back anyday - especially to do the Milford Track and perhaps get up to the Bay of Islands north of Auckland.

New Middle Zealand Earth - Part 4

Last night in Queenstown - long party night - Drinking bourbon and coke, red bull and vodka and these mysterious shots from tea pots... it was good fun...
1/Ken, John and Jason's ass 2/ Darren 3/ Jason and John dancing 4/ Ken on the dancefloor



Last shot on the trip - the boys really wanted to see penguins, and we did. They were cute.

New Middle Zealand Earth - Part 3

THE ROUTEBURN TRACK
13/Ken at the very beginning of our 3 day 34km alpine track - The Routeburn
14/The reward of our first days hike - we spent lunch at the foot of that amazing fiord. The river at the bottom was refreshing and the meadow incredible. This is my favourite photo and the most magical place I've ever seen. Ken and I agreed, all it lacked were unicorns!
15/Second day's hike brought us to this lake in the saddle of the mountains. Totally unexpected to find a lake at this altitude. The waterfalls were aplenty after the storm I hardly could sleep through overnight.










16/I believe this is a view from the saddle and not the summit as when we made the hours trek up there it was overcast... but this was a spectacular view 17/Last day's hike - The orchard 18/Our reward at the end of our hike was hitching to this - Milford Sound. Crazy beautiful. Pictures do not do it justice.

Overall the hiking was intense at times but so worth it. We were up 1515meters at the saddle. Makes for amazing photos.

New Middle Zealand Earth - Part 2

You can click on the pics to open them larger...











7/The Remarkables mountain range - we thought they were stunning before we knew what they were called 8/Darren on the lift to the LUGE - so much fun! 9/Remarks in front of the Remarkables










TRIP TO PARADISE, NZ
10/ Endless sheep in Paradise - they were loud... 11/Paradise in the rain 12/Our Paradise companions - Mort and Klaus - crazy driving Vikings who the most hospitable folks we met in NZ
This trip I hope to detail in a short story someday as it was the coolest hitchhike trip - we bonded over a warped cassette of Queen's Greatest Hits and coffee with whiskey in the rain...

New Middle Zealand Earth

K, so I'm just getting around to posting my photos with some description of the trip to New Zealand which was an incredible journey of all aspects - especially upon some reflection... The visuals say it all.
I'm actually posting this in reverse order... South Island first... I've edited this quite a bit - just sending the highlights, but since they all were highlights, I'm sending my favourites...











1/Wellington - beautiful progressive city (North Island) 2/Ken and I in Nelson - driving break and v. cool seaside south island town 3/Pancake Rocks










4/Southern Alps coastline - breathtaking 5/Franz Josef glacier - it had rained so much the night before that we had to sleep in our car since NZ is so remote and mountainous the road was washed out by a few slips and there was literally no where to go - needless to say the waterfalls where spectacular after that 6/side trip through farmland - dog rounding up cows which sort of charged the car