Tramping the Northern Most Point of New Zealand

Hello all! I am safe and sound from my last (and first) three day tramp around the northern most point of publicly accesible land in New Zealand. The tramp was fabulous too, however I don't think I'll tramp on beaches again. Sand is tough to walk through.

Anyway, we started off three days ago. I met up with a German named Martin in the hostel that I was staying at. He wanted to do this tramp with me so I waited one extra day to go with him. We started by buying a bus tour of the cape, and when the bus got to Te Paki stream, it dropped us off. It was kind of amusing to see us with all these tourists in the bus because our bags were huge! Everyone else only had cameras, and they had no idea that we were just being dropped off. But we got to see some fun things on the tour as well.

On the tour, we passed by a store with a Kauri tree in it. a Kauri, tree is about the size of a redwood. So huge. Anyway, they had carved a spiral staircase inside this tree. Apparently it is the only "inside a tree spiral staircase" in the world, however good that title is too have.

We then stopped quickly at some sand dunes and sledded down them. Don't get too exited however. This does not compare to sledding in the least. It is slow, and much harder to walk up the sand dunes then it is to walk up snow. Even when the snow is pretty deep. We found it was actually more fun to just run as fast as you could down these dunes without falling down. Once again, we probably looked pretty funny. The only two people out of about 60 that were just running up and down dunes, instead of sledding.

Then it was off on our tramp. The first day was only a four hour walk to the most beautiful beach and campsite on the whole tramp. We had the beach completely to ourselves, the weather was perfect, and we got to see some stars finally. It was warm, and we got to swim in the ocean, and play some frisbee. All around good times. Here is a picture of me at the beginning of the beach.

So, you might think beach walking is fun. That is where you are sorely mistaken though. Beaches are soft and long. See the far side of the beach in that last picture? That is where we camped, and it took about an hour to get there. In the mountains you could cover that distance in 15 minutes! So it was a good experience to have, but I think I'm done with tramping on beaches now. :)

The second day we crossed over Cape Reinga. The Lighthouse up there is gorgeous, albeit infested with tourists. Here's an example of how eco friendly New Zealandars are though. The Lighthouse uses a fifty watt bulb! Incredible! It is powered off solar panels too! It is also completely automated from Wellington. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

After the lighthouse we walked over to another established camping area. It was also crowded and we had to pay for camping. So that was kind of a bummer. It also had started to rain on us so we were feeling kinda miserable.

Then for the third long day. The third day we walked for about 7.5 hours. It was a total of 16km (10 miles) and over some interesting ridges and bays. If I were to go back, I would spend all my time in Pandora Bay. We would've liked to stay there a night but somebody had already taken the only good campspot. They also thought they were completely alone, because as soon as we showed up, they ran off to get dressed. Yep, they were completly naked, and sure enough too embarresed to say hi as we walked by! :) (I won't post pics of them. hehe!)

Then we had to walk across the longest and most difficult beach of them all. Spirits Bay. Still gorgeous, but way too long! Just Knee-bending work to get across it! Once we finally did, after conserving all the water we could, we stopped at another camp ground for the night. Also crowded, but a good place to Hitch a ride from the next morning. So needless to say, I had a great time! Now I'm back in Kaitaia, and looking forward to heading down to the Bay of Islands to go swimming with some dolphins! Apparently the Kauri Forest is also down in that area, so I'll check out the huge trees in their natural enviroment soon!

Hope you all had a fabulous Xmas! Trust me, I'm missing the snow plenty! And have a grand New Years. (Is the house of Hamatco going to be hosting a new years party this year?)

Cheers!

Kaitaia - Way up north

Right now I am in a little town called Kaitaia. This is the take off spot for the cape Reinga tramp. (they use tramping instead of backpacking here in NZ) So for the next three days I'll be walking about 25 miles or so on beaches! It should be a really cool scene to watch the Tasman Sea meeting up with the south Pacific. I guess you can really see them beating against each other.

Other than that, things have been somewhat slow for me so far. I've had a lot of difficulty finding good internet that I can load pictures on. Right now I'm on a little dial up connection. Blegh!

To get to Kaitaia from Auckland, I warmed up my hitchhiking thumb. I don't know if it's due to the NZers being extraordinarily nice, or do to the holiday season, but I've had no problems hitching so far. The first people that gave me a ride to Whangarei, drove thirty minutes out of their way to drop me off. They also bought me food and gave me a beer at the super market! Then the person to pick me up from Whangerai to Kataia also brought me to their house and fed me before finding me another ride that went the rest of the way! The hospitality here is wonderful! The second people even offered to let me stay there, however, I'm pretty excited to get on this tramp.

So with all that said, sorry that I still haven't gotten pictures up! I'll keep working on it as the days go by! Hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas! It hasn't quite warmed up to the normal NZ summer temps yet, so I've still been wearing long pants! :) Hope it's not TOO cold back in the bozone!

Till next time!

Auckland - Finally Down Under!

So, I've made it safely to Auckland. I am finally in the land of Kiwi's! Everything is good down here, albeit I haven't had any time to explore yet. I arrived in Beamers flat yesterday, and spent my time sleeping, and getting rid of Jet Lag. The place that I have in Auckland is sweet! Thanks Beamz, for letting me use it! Anyway, I still haven't gotten pics of the area yet, however I think I'll be doing a "coast to coast" walk here in a few minutes to get my bearings straight. There is some rockclimbing in the area that I may try out if I can find a partner, and it looks like a good walk on an Island in the bay that I'll do tommorrow. First things first though. Gotta find food. ;) I've been looking all over for a grocery store, but can't find them for the life of me.

On another note, a lot of you have been asking where to send postcards or other various paraphanalia. Well, I figure I'll just tell you on the blog so I don't have to keep typing it over and over. What I've been telling people so far is this: If you need to send something, just email me and find out where I'll be in the next week to 10 days or so. Then you can send things "post restante - main post office" to that particular town. When I go through there, I'll be sure to pick it up! However a warning. I am trying as hard as I can to travel very lightly. So unless it's just a postcard or something that you think I need direly, don't send it! Just send your lovely thoughts! That is good enough to keep me happy! So thank you all for the thoughts! And Merry Christmas!

With that said, I think I am off to find that dang grocery store that is constantly alluding me! Wish me luck!

More of Railay and Bangkok

First an amusing story! I went down to Railay to do some climbing, like you all know from my previous post. I met up with Jim, and he and I then met up with about 6 other people that we hung out with for the rest of the week. One of these people was named Kate. She is from Vancouver. Anyway, Kate left Railay on the 14th, and I was due to leave the afternoon of the 15th. Once I left, I took a long boat to a taxi station, where a minibus picked me up to go to the bus station. Well, as I was looking at the passengers in the Mini bus, I recognized one of them. The one and only, Kate from Vancouver was on it. So we said hi again, and I found out that she had mistaken which day her bus left, and it really left on the 15th. So we rode in this minibus to a bus station where she was getting on her bus to Bangkok, while another minibus was supposed to take me to Suratthani to get on the train. So we said our goodbyes again, and got on our sepearate vehicles. Once I arrived in Suratthani, the minibus driver dropped us off at another miniture bus station/reststop. I hung out there for a bit, and guess who shows up in a bus 10 minutes later! Yep, Kate again! So we say hi, and wow, this is weird coincedence etc. etc. and more or less say our goodbyes again when she gets on the bus. So, just before the bus is supposed to leave, all the people that are taking the train get yelled at because we are not on the bus. The bus was going to drop us off at the train station on the way to Bangkok. So, I get on the bus, say my hi's to Kate again, and stand all the way to the train station. (About half an hour away, and there was no room to sit on the bus.) Well, this time I'm sure it's the last time I'll see Kate, but I joke about it anyway. . ."Well, see you in Bangkok!" I say, knowing it's not true. She laughs, and says goodbye. Well, guess what. . .Today, Linnea and I went to the weekend market, which is a story in itself, and after walking around for about 3 hours, in a city of approximately 10 million people, guess who I run into again! Sure enough, Kate was there enjoying the market. What an amazing set of Coincedences! (And she happened to randomly hook up with another of the 6 people that were climbing down there. She just bumped into him in Bangkok as well. He was a German called Marselle.)

Well, now to post up some pictures of the wonderful area called Railay. I'll tell you this now. This is not going to be the last time that I go there. The climbing is so phenomenol, it's hard to describe. More or less, it is just one pitch climbs and everything is sport routes. You can rent gear if you need it (including ropes, however I don't know if I would want to rent ropes.) And there are climbers EVERYWHERE! It can be a little tough to get on some routes, but there are so many to choose from that at most you'll only have to walk another 5 meters to get on something else you can climb. And the majority of the climbs are right on the Beach.

As a general idea what I did for the week that I was in Railay, I showed up, and hung out the first day. I climbed two days, and took two days rest, then climbed for the next three days. On the last day I did a really fun multipitch climb called "humanality." It was five pitches long, and in the fourth pitch there is a stalagtite that hangs behind you. On the main wall, you completly run out of any holds, so as your 150 feet off the ground, you have to turn around and lean out to this stalactite. Then you transfer all of your weight to this stalactite and climb it for about two or three moves. Then you have to turn back around and get on the main wall again. It is an incredible feeling. In this picture, I was standing with my left foot on the stalactite, and my right foot on the main wall. Holding the camera up, I happened to catch my belayer in the picture too. If you look closely, the rope points right to him. You can see Dave's head sticking out. (Dave is a newlywed Chiropracter from the Lake Tahoe area. He came down for his Honeymoon. So Congrats Dave!)

I was also able to climb a 6c climb which for you climbers out there is like a 5.11a-5.11b. I was very proud of myself! Mostly though I was climbing 6a and 6a+ which is about the 5.9-5.10b range. Jim kept calling me his "rope gun" cause I would just shoot up climbs and set up top ropes for him! I like that term. I'm now a rope gun!

Anyway, I love climbing so much that I could continue to talk about every climb I did down there. But since I don't think everybody has that same passion, I'll switch gears to my rest days down there. At least one in particular. . .

On our second rest day I went to a little village Just outside of Ao Nang. At this village they raise Elephants! And sure enough, I went Elephant Trekking! It is really quite an experiance. You'd think it was like horse back riding, but on the contrary, Elephants are ridiculously slow! We trekked a total of about 100 yards or so in an hour! But nonetheless, it was an adventure worth remembering.

Here I am on top of an Elephant head! These things are so massive! Our Elephant was very kind. They just kind of saunter through the forest minding their own business, not even realizing, persay, that there is a human on top of their head! After riding these guys for an hour, we learned all about them. How they like to play, bathe, and eat! They eat about 200 kilos a day! And as Pat would say, "that's 440 pounds!" (I love ya Pat!) Apparently, every now and then the Elephants decide to run away. It's funny cause the trainers have no choice but to follow them barking commands and hoping that the Elephant will listen. Fences won't stop these guys. . .

Well, here I am, typing this post on a Macintosh, and it is starting to get to me. There are a few more picutes I'd love to post up, however they need to be rotated. For some reason when I rotate a picture here, it makes it 14 megs instead of 1.5. And I really don't want to mess with it right now. . .sorry! So with that said, I think it is time for me to sign off! In two days I'll be flying to Auckland to start my Journey around down under! Hopefully it'll be as fun as Thailand was! Wow, it's been a month already huh?

Oh, and before I forget, I'd like to Wish everyone back home a Merry Christmas! Truthfully though, I'm somewhat enjoying not being in the states over Christmas time. It is so busy there with Christmas this, Christmas that, that I get overwhelmed. Out here I've only heard carols in the Subway. But I will however miss my freinds and family over this time. Hope things are going well!

Railay - World Class Climbing

Sorry about the long delay in posts! It has been a wild few days! I also Can't talk too long because as of now I am in a very expensive touristy area that charges a lot for Internet. :( I've found where Thailand isn't neccessarily cheap. Not bad though.

After I got back from Sangkla buri, I spent a day in Bangkok. We then bussed our way up to Buriram to a small town called nong boat (sp?). It was a fun little place, but we didn't get to spend much time there. We stayed at a Cabbages and Condoms resort right across the street from the school we were visiting. This School was NOTHING like the ones we saw in Sangkhla buri. It had power, well built, and many seperate grades. Over 500 students really. They were really nice. There was a "garbage band" there that played a bunch of instruments made out of old trash, and they were really good. Their songs were about how recycling is really important and we all need to save the earth, so the message was good too!

After that show, they sat us down in front of all the students, and two old ladies prayed for us. They prayed that we should have safe travels and a wonderful time. Then a whole bunch of teachers lined up and wished us luck in our future travels. One by one, they came up and tied a single piece of string to our wrists. I now have about 80 peices around my wrist. I'm supposed to leave them on for at least three days, but I think I would like the luck to stick around with me for longer than that!

Well, I then jumped on a bus, and had a long ride back to bangkok. I only had about 2 hours in Bangkok before my train left to Surat Thani. I got on the train at 6:30pm, and after watching kareoke in the "party" car with some Hollanders, I slept, until the train arrived in Surat Thani at 6:30am. 12 hours there. Then I hopped on a 3 hour bus ride to Krabi, and took a long boat to Railay, which is the only way to get here. Way fun, and it's nice to get away from the cars! Regardless, I was traveling for like 28 hours straight! Long days!

So now I'm in Railay, sitting next to Jim who I've met through rockclimbing.com. Jim and I just got done with our first day climbing and it is FABULOUS here! There are weird stalactites everywhere that are great for hanging off of and playing around on. There are three beaches within walking distance, with climbing on all of them. No shortage of climbing whatsoever. Anyway, Jim got a great room, and he is letting me stay with him. I only have to pay 500 baht a night for a fantastic place. Still a little expensive for my tastes, but the place is booked solid, and it's really all I can get. (500 baht is about 15 dollars or so.)

So with that said, I have another fantastic day of climbing waiting for me tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it! Sorry about no pictures for this post, but like I said, it's expensive. I don't really want to take the time to upload etc. . .

Love you all!

Sangkhla buri and The Children of the Forest.

Hello all!

I am back in Bangkok for just today. I just got back last night from a little town up in the northwest of Thailand called Sangkhla buri. It was incredibly nice getting away from the big smelly cities and into a small town of about 5000 people or so.

The entire reason I went to Sangkhla buri was to join the head people of the Amicus Foundation. www.amicusfoundation.org for those that are interested. Anyway, the main people of the Amicus foundation are Mary and Matthew Kelly. They are Linnea's mother and step father. So, they are trying to raise money for the foundation, which builds schools and other buildings, and more or less helps out the children of the forest here in Thailand. The Children are either Children that are orphaned or have a single mother. Anyway, it's an amazing foundation that is doing some really important work.

So, today is Monday. Which would make it Thursday when we drove out there. It was about a five hour drive, and The bridge over the river Kwai was on the way. So we stopped there for lunch. The Lunch spot is a gorgeous floating restaurant. It's right on the river with a great view of the bridge. All in all though, the bridge wasn't spectacular. Tons of tourists on it. I just wanted to jump off of it really. We asked some people if I could, but they said it probably wasn't a good idea because they were preparing for a reinactment of the bridge being destroyed. So apparently fireworks were under the water, or something like that.

When we got to the resort, we found a beautiful place. We stayed at this little hotel with seperate little houses for the rooms. All very plush. It was overlooking the resevoir that had floating houses in it as well. Then there was this gorgeous wooden bridge that also crossed over the resevoir onto the Mon side. The Mons are just another religous affilition. So you have primarily buddists on our side, and mons on the other side.

After Waking up on Friday, we traveled to the first school. This was a school that was about a 5 minute drive into the jungle. And this is where we spent the majority of our time. I took a few hundred pictures, that I'm trying to sort through today. So, mom, expect a CD of pics soon! :) We spent the whole day touring this village/school area and it was such an incredible experiance. The kids loved us at first site, they are completely self sufficiant, and only two buildings have electricity. That night they put on a show for us as well. They had practiced dancing and singing and performed it infront of two parked cars that had thier headlights on.

The next day we drove to the border of Myanmar and Thailand. And of course, I forgot my Outside Bozeman magazine! Stupid stupid stupid! Regardless, after touring another small village that was officially in Myanmar, we headed to the coolest village of all.

We had to off road for about 20 minutes. We got about 5 miles into the deep, deep jungle. Then we hiked for another 10 minutes. So we were way in. The Amicus foundation funded a school at that place. The kids were very shy there though, and didn't speak Thai. No electricity whatsoever, they harvested their own rice, made their own food, and lived this way their entire lives. Some of them had never been to a city before, and they were about 60-70 years old! On our drive out, we then saw the most amazing jungle spider ever! It was about the size of my face! And I thought it was going to eat me whole! As we were driving, I saw this spider about 10 meters away and had time to warn everybody to duck to miss it. (Oh, yeah, we were riding in the back of a pickup truck). The spider body was black with bright orange, sharp legs that were each probably 10cm long! I'll look for the type online, and see if I can post a picture at some point.














That night we came back to the first village, and watched more kids perform. They had dances, music and singing. And then they invited me to juggle and perform magic. Let me tell you, this was probably my best audience ever. Given, my regular routine didn't necesarily work due to the language barrier. But to give an example, after juggling apples, all the kids were hording oranges that night from their dinner so they could practice juggling too. Also, one of the tricks I performed was tearing a 100 baht bill in half, then in quarters, folding it up, and restoring it to normal. Considering these kids live on probably about 100 baht a month (A little less than three dollars) they were devestated to see me ripping up this bill! Plus I couldn't explain what was going to happen! They just say me ripping up A LOT of money! Crazy people! But when that bill got restored, they erupted into cheering, laughing, and applauding. Just for that reaction, it has made my entire magic "career" worth while! It was also the first time the kids have seen magic of any sort. It really made me wish I could've brought some of my larger stage tricks that aren't as reliant on language as card tricks are.














Well, the next day, we drove back to Bangkok, and since then we've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get things done before we take off again tomorrow.

By the way, I took all the pictures on this blog except the ones I am in. . .Hope you enjoy them! They are some of my favorite photographs that I have ever taken!