NZ South Island

(Editor's note: Now with a photo of me jumping into the canyon!)

Sorry to my loyal blog followers who've been awaiting my next post, but the South Island of New Zealand has been simply INCREDIBLE, and I just haven't had the chance to update. Let me rectify this by catching you all up on my past few days.

Monday was another rainy day in Rotorua and I was glad to get out of town. I headed to one of the smallest airports I have ever seen and boarded a propeller plane for Queenstown on the South Island. Didn't even pass through a metal detector to board -- LOVED IT. Probably the noisiest takeoff I've ever experienced, however.

The descent into Queenstown was simply remarkable, even on a cloudy day. You see the mountains pop out from a lake of the clearest blue, and you almost feel as if the plane will run into them. Unfortunately I was seated next to one of the propellers but hopefully this shot captures it somewhat well.

Queenstown is an alpine resort village situated in the middle of this amazing scenery. I've been staying at a hostel along the shore of Lake Wakatipu about a 10-minute walk away from town. The place feels like what I imagine Aspen to be -- just shops and restaurants and bars and accommodation. No one actually lives here as it's simply a tourist destination, but it's not hard to see why so many people converge on this place. Look at the view from outside my hostel!!

For the first time in my trip I've escaped the flock of English 20-somethings that seem to be ubiquitous in this country and have actually found some Americans and Europeans here (the Brits are a separate category altogether). On my first night here, my hostelmate insisted we eat out at the Fergburger, a Queenstown institution. Place had a line out the door, even in off-season -- DC residents think Ray's Hell Burger.

The burger was totally worth the "queue", however...DELICIOUS!! The sandwich was enormous, actually American-sized, and covered in aioli and a tomato relish. One of the best burgers I've ever had!

Afterwards the two of us made it to the pub and downed a few pints while watching a friendly soccer match between Australia and New Zealand. Both teams are gearing up for the World Cup in a couple weeks and there's always serious national pride on the line when these two go at it. The NZ "All Whites" were big underdogs to the Aus "Socceroos" but jumped out to a surprising early lead. However they got a little careless in defense and the Socceroos pulled out a 2-1 victory at the final whistle. The bar of Brits didn't seem too bothered by this. Can't wait for the World Cup...starts June 11!!

For the adrenalin junkie, Queenstown has everything to offer. It's the place that defines "adventure tourism". Though QT is the home of the first bungee jumping center, on Tuesday I opted instead for the Shotover Canyon Swing. You're strapped in a harness and "swing" across the canyon after a 60 meter (197 foot) free fall...SCARY!!! This picture, showing the jump platform to the right, does not properly capture the beauty of the scenery (would have made a brilliant hike) nor how frightening it is to stand on the edge of this platform and stare down into the river below.

But what a feeling on the jump! The freefall lasts for about 3 seconds and then you're caught by the "swing" component, and are just happy to be alive! Hanging from a cable over the river is a terrific view, and well worth jumping off a cliff to do so. The people working at the swing are top-notch too, giving me all sorts of supportive words such as "Don't know why you'd want to jump off a cliff today" and "Business school? Guess you didn't want to be in business for very long, eh?"

I was actually crazy enough to jump 3 times off this thing...forwards, backwards (much scarier!), and the jump they call "Gimp Boy Goes To Hollywood". The latter involved me tethered off the platform by a rope with feet up and face staring straight into the river, then they cut the rope!

Wednesday was a long day trip to the Milford Sound, one of three UNESCO World Heritage sites in NZ. It's situated in Fjordland National Park, a vast home of glacially-carved treasures about the size of New Jersey. As the crow flies, Milford is only about 60 miles from QT, but traversing the one road takes nearly 4 hours by bus each way, and I opted for the latter. The drive in though was a treasure trove of stunning mountains, particularly once we past the small town of Te Anau.


To say the Milford Sound was worth the drive is an understatement. I've simply seen nothing like it in my life. Mountains rising from the sea to heights over 5000 feet high. My camera got a serious workout here and I could overwhelm this blog with photos, but pictures alone cannot capture the stunning views you get on the boat ride through -- you must experience it for yourself!

The two-hour ferry ride shepherded us out to the Tasman Sea and back. Along the way we saw seals and terrific waterfalls flowing off the cliffs to the water below. A friendly geologist took this photo of me (look how close the boat is to the cliff!) and was oozing with excitement in telling me how the glaciers shaped the rocks in this valley.

Today I rode the Skyline Gondola up 2500 feet to get a view of town. What a view. This is an overhead look at Queenstown, with Lake Wakatipu and "The Remarkables" range in the distance.

In the afternoon, I took a "Lord of the Rings" tour in an amphibious Land Rover over the mountains and through the rivers (!) in the Queenstown area. Most of you probably know that Peter Jackson created his image of Middle Earth by cutting and pasting shots from NZ's majestic scenery. Here you see the mountains which get zoomed in on towards Mordor at the beginning of the second film (they aren't topped with snow in the film).

I've started to gather my travel momentum now. Did my first load of laundry -- SO NICE to have clean clothes :) -- and actually tried cooking in the hostel kitchen. The latter didn't go so well, especially as I tried to improvise a meal of risotto with vegetables and beans. Ahh, cooking...I am so useless in the kitchen.

Maori Cultural Experience

No trip to New Zealand would be complete without experiencing the warmness of the Maori people. For my second day in Rotorua, I visited Te Puia, home of the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. Being situated at a site of geothermal activity, it would also be a great way to see the geysers and hot springs that have attracted tourists to Rotorua for over a century.


I started my day with a couple hours hiking around the grounds. Having visited geologically active areas in Iceland and Yellowstone Park, I have a very high standard for these types of things and to be honest I think Rotorua wasn't as impressive. The geyser was relatively tame but the mudpools were rather bubbly and active. The environment wasn't barren though -- lush vegetation surrounded the park, which made for a very pleasant morning hike.


I then watched a performance by a group of Maori performers, complete with a typical greeting to the village by a Maori warrior (to see whether we came in peace) along with several songs and dances (haka). Unlike the haka performed by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, which are designed to intimidate the opponent, these haka were peaceful and friendly, though full of the same body-slapping, eye-bulging, and tongue theatrics.

After a traditional hangi lunch of chicken, corn, cabbage, and some other vegetables, the rain returned, so I ventured indoors to view the onsite carving and weaving schools. Te Puia also has a kiwi house to promote interest in NZ's endangered flightless national icon. Kiwis are much larger than I was expecting and awfully goofy looking, with big beaks which go poking in the dirt for worms and bugs.

ZORB!

Rotorua, NZ became a must-stop on my list when I learned about zorbing, basically you rolling down a hill in a giant plastic hamster ball. How cool is that?

First I needed to get to the ZORB center, 10km (6.2 miles) outside of town. Fortunately this was connected to Rotorua's public transit system, so I hopped on the #1 bus and figured I would get off when I saw a big hill and giant hamster balls. Well, I happened to reach such a location, so I scurried off the bus. BIG mistake -- it turned out I was at Fishpipe, a giant stationary hamster ball, naturally from the inventors of Zorbing. It was still a 3 mile walk on a busy country highway to get to the Zorb location, but terrific day. And some vacation exercise, woohoo!

After walking for so far I was ready to be strapped in! There are two types of zorb rides -- one has you strapped in like an astronaut as you roll down; the other you're thrown in with some warm water and you slide around like you're on a water slide. I elected to do both and after telling the cashier my story he gave me the second ride for free!

The astronaut zorb was an incredible rush. The world is just spinning round-and-round and I just laughed hysterically the whole way down the hill. The water ride was also fun, though not as novel.

After an intense morning of hiking and zorbing, I was a little pooped. Rotorua has an immensely developed tourism industry and I found the amount of choices to be overwhelming (and a bit pricey). Rather I was content to walk around, and found some great sights along the way. To the left is the Government Gardens, an immense plot of land gifted from Maori tribes to the Brits, on which they placed this impressive mansion surrounded by flowers, trees, and a croquet field! That's right, croquet, aren't we getting all colonial here.

I then walked down to the shores of Lake Rotorua and enjoyed a beautiful, relaxing afternoon in the city park, breathing in all the country air my body could take in.

Rainy Travel Day

The showers continued on my final day in Auckland, making it the perfect day to spend the afternoon in transit. I had planned to spend the morning at Sky Tower, which with a height of 1076 feet makes it the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately with visibility being what it was it just wasn't worth making the trip to the top, though on a sunny day it provides a great view of over 20 (dormant) volcanoes.

I spent my afternoon on a bus for the 4.5 hour ride to Rotorua, a town of 55000 known for its geothermal activity. The ride was very scenic, full of lush hilltops covered in sheep and cattle. Statisticians estimate that sheep outnumber people in New Zealand by 12 to 1!

I walked around Rotorua last night and covered the entire town in about 30 minutes. It has the feel of a Wild West town, though somewhat yuppified by all the tourism, sort of like Jackson Hole. Was a ghost town on a Friday night, however, perhaps because it's off-season for tourism here.

The City of Sails

As you can see from the photo here, the weather has gone south (no pun intended) in Auckland. Rainy and windy and "chilly" by Auckland standards (upper 50s). But that didn't deter me from another day of explorations.

I started my day with an urban hike from Auckland City to the nearby suburbs. As a city built on top of volcanic craters, Auckland is extremely hilly, maybe even more so than San Francisco. So I got quite the workout!

My quest was to find the Burger Wisconsin place I saw on the 6AM bus into the city on my first day. This was in the scenic Mt Eden suburb of Auckland, named after one of the many volcanoes in the area. After a 55 minute walk, almost entirely uphill, I finally reached my destination and took a photo for all you Sconnies out there. They even got the state colors right! Unfortunately this restaurant doesn't open for business until 5PM, but this is a New Zealand chain with 24 locations! So I was able to walk to another branch in the hip and fashionable Ponsonby suburb which was open for lunch. I ordered a "petite" bacon/avocado burger served on a big sourdough bun. Pretty tasty...the meat seemed leaner than your typical burger.

After lunch I strolled back into the city and visited the National Maritime Museum. Neat place with exhibits showcasing New Zealand's sailing heritage, from the first Polynesian settlers (NZ was the last major landmass settled on Earth) to European explorers to present day racing yachts. The museum included NZL 32, also known as "Black Magic", winner of the 1995 America's Cup. Was the second non-American yacht to win.

A trip to Auckland couldn't be complete without a sail on the high seas, so I had booked in advance an afternoon "Coffee Cruise" in the harbor. Unfortunately the rain had started at that point and boy was it a wet ride! We were given big rain ponchos to shield us from the elements while on deck, and we were far from the only action in the harbor. Even on a Thursday there was a race going on.

The 50-foot yacht, aptly named "Defiance" for sailing in such dreadful weather, had a 2-member Kiwi crew and a whole group of incomprehensible Chinese tourists on board. Extreme language barriers for the crew to overcome in explaining the safety precautions but we made it just fine. Winds of around 15 knots meant we had a speedy but not dangerous journey, and all in all I actually found the whole thing rather enjoyable. Though after being soaked like that, once we docked I bolted for refuge in the nearest pub!

Waiheke Island

Picture perfect weather greeted me for my first day in Auckland...low 60s with bright sunshine. A superb day to walk around and gather the flavor of this place. I started by walking down Queen Street, the hip commercial center of this city of 1.4 million (one-third of all Kiwis live here). My hostel here is centrally located, and it was maybe a 10 minute walk until I reached the harbor. They call Auckland the "City of Sails" and it's not hard to see why. The city is packed in with bays on both sides and you see sailboats everywhere.

I then caught the bus (Auckland is pretty spread out) and visited the Auckland Museum. It had a large collection of Maori artifacts and some rather chilling remnants of wars past (mostly WW1), but most interesting thing learned was that Auckland sits on the edge of a large volcanic crater, and historically there has been an eruption in the Auckland area once every 5000 years. So fingers crossed that I don't end up in a big ash cloud! (literally) The country of New Zealand sits at the edge of the Pacific plate with the Australian plate passing underneath, so they claim to have built early warning systems for potential eruption events.

I then took the bus back to the harbor and booked a ferry passage to Waiheke Island (rhymes with Waikiki) -- from what I had read an island full of delightful vineyards and beautiful beaches. It did not disappoint! Only a 40 minute ride in the harbor but a world away from the metropolitan hum of the city.
New Zealand is a treat for oenophiles. Temperate but not too cold, the country is famous for its crisp sauvignon blancs from the Marlbourough region South Island, and also makes some rather presentable reds in the north. I started at the Goldwater Estate, the first vineyard on the island, first planted in 1978. Though not locally grown, the sauv blanc was a clear winner -- a little peppery and to-the-point...none of the bitter aftertaste that turns me away from a lot of whites. Situated on a hill with a scenic view of the water.

I then visited the Saratoga Estate, named for the town in northern California where the owner is from (recently adopted Kiwi). They produce a delightful syrah that I'm told pairs well with Mexican food, which they actually serve in their Spanish mission style building.


For sunset I reached the long, sandy Onetangi beach. Terrific beach for walking at low tide and enjoying the end to a wonderful first day in New Zealand.

Auckland, First Impressions

Hello from the other side of the world! After enduring a 5-hour flight from Dulles to LAX and another 12.5 hours to Auckland, I have arrived in New Zealand!!!


The flight over was a true red-eye. Whole flight in complete darkness over the empty Pacific Ocean. Left Monday night and arrived Wednesday morning -- let me know how Tuesday was because I didn't experience it!


First step upon arrival (we landed early at 5:10 AM NZST) was to remedy my daypack situation...the National Press Club sackpack just wasn't working out. It didn't organize my stuff at all and was already starting to tear at the top. Fortunately Auckland International is a clean and lovely facility, and I found this excellent luggage shop outside passport control and the "biodiversity" area* called Carri-On Essentials that had the perfect satchel to carry all the little things.

I took the bus into town from the airport before sunrise so I haven't seen a whole lot yet besides the morning fog, but it's rather temperate here for late autumn (exact opposite seasons compared to the Northern Hemisphere) and sort of feels like arriving in San Francisco with the palm-like trees and the cool hip storefronts on the drive into town. There's even a place called "Burger Wisconsin" I saw which I will need to make it back to!

Air New Zealand was terrific and all the Kiwis I have encountered thus far have been very friendly. The people here are sort of like the Brits except they seem more laid back, but same language and same bloody teeth issues! What is up with British orthodontics??

Time for me to explore now. It's 20 minutes past 8AM here now -- I'm 16 hours ahead of you East Coasters!



* A stricter form of Customs which doesn't allow food to be brought in, and even scans for foreign dirt on your hiking boots!

Travelers' Anxiety

Most people who have been around me the past two weeks (and that's not many people since I've been a bit of a hermit) have seen that I'm somewhat on edge at the moment. The idea of traveling to so many exotic locations with only a backpack has led to the obvious questions: What do I bring? How will it all fit? What are all the situations I can find myself in where I need that one thing? I better be carrying it when I need it.

Since I will need to be able to carry all my stuff from place to place, and as I have read every online posting urging young intrepid travelers to "go light", I've been trying to come to terms with the dozen or so articles of clothing I can get by with wearing for an entire summer. Blog alert: If I can figure out how to upload pictures of myself on the road you're going to see me wearing a lot of the same things!

I've been parsing down my wardrobe using the following guidelines:

• Try to have a basic range from beachwear to "smart casual" to clothes I can wear when I am in a house of worship.
• Keep it plain and boring. Avoid logos like Polo Ralph Lauren which could obviously give me away as an American. I cannot hide than I'm a Westerner but I'd like to be able to pass off on first glance as indistinguishable between European, Canadian, or American.
• Weight my pack towards items which won't be pleasant to re-wear without washing, such as socks. I hope to get by doing laundry every 10 days or so.
• When in doubt, leave it behind.

My strategy is to keep my clothes in my backpack (which unfortunately needs to be checked for my flights) and carry along a daypack of sundries which will come onboard the plane with me. A slimmed down version of the daypack will come with me as I travel around cities and visit places, with my backpack locked down in either a hostel locker or hotel room.

I'm usually thorough in prepping for even the shortest of business trips, but the around-the-world itinerary has taken this thoroughness to an extreme. Having made my list and checked it twice, I'm trying to ensure that all the little essentials such as ear plugs, sleeping pills, and Imodium are covered.

The fact is that I'm pretty much always anxious just before I travel. The fear of the unknown seems to always recur whenever I travel somewhere new. I think this is natural for many people but I feel as if I experience this more than most.

I'm trying to comfort myself by reminding myself that many things I forget now I can find overseas. Even if I'm underprepared, I'll make do with what I have with me. I tend to calm down greatly once I'm actually in motion to my travel destination, and because of this I can't wait to get started on my trip. Twenty-four hours to takeoff...

Trip Preparations

Hello and welcome to my new Blog! First of all let me inform you that this is my first time blogging, so if I'm breaking any rules regarding "blog etiquette" please let me know. Those who know me well know that I've held a general antipathy towards blogs in the past, but given the sheer number of people who expressed an interest in staying posted on my summer travels I felt this was a far better source of information than email. Plus if you get bored you can always stop reading -- in case you don't want to know what I ate in Istanbul that day, etc. :)

The idea of a trip formed in my head towards the end of my business school applications in December last year. Anyone who has been through that process realizes how spirit-draining it can be, and my mind started wandering as an escape from endless evenings of essay revisions. The idea of an around-the-world trip wasn't new -- I had a couple former coworkers that did the same thing who I could emulate -- and I felt this was an efficient way to knock off many of the places on my travel "to do" list.

Thankfully I got accepted to the University of Virginia Darden School of Business on January 27, at which point the wheels really started spinning to put this idea in motion. First, I needed to decide when to quit my job. I knew by end of April I would have decided where I would be going in the fall (it ended up being Darden), and I felt it was important to have made the B-school decision before launching myself abroad. With school activities starting up in mid-August and knowing I would need time to catch my breath after so much travel, I decided to limit myself to a two-month voyage.

With the exception of a summer exchange program I did in Germany in high school, I've never spent more than two weeks away from home, so two months felt like a ton of time to see everything in the world I always wanted. When I started planning my trip, however, I quickly realized it was almost no time at all. I would need to prioritize, and some destinations fell off the list.

After a couple frantic last-minute switches (due to political instability in Greece and Bangkok), I finally set up the following itinerary:

May 17: Depart Washington D.C.

May 19-28: New Zealand

May 28-June 3: Australia

June 4-10: Shanghai

June 10-15: Hong Kong

June 15-18: Singapore

June 18-24: Phuket, Thailand

June 24-28: Malaysia

June 28-July 1: Dubai

July 1-6: Istanbul

July 6-12: Croatia (hopping along the coast from Split to Dubrovnik)

July 12-19: Barcelona & Ibiza, Spain

July 19: Return to Washington D.C.

So if all goes to plan I'll be back in the U.S. in two months, having left crossing the Pacific and returned crossing the Atlantic. Murphy's Law must be in effect for something of this complexity, so I'm near certain that I won't follow this perfectly, but will try.

Putting this together was way more work than I had anticipated. After leaving my job I've spent most of my past two weeks frantically researching destinations and booking flights and accommodations. All 3 of my credit cards have called me at some point with concerns -- I'll admit it was strange trying to explain to a Visa representative that, yes, in fact I HAD booked a Melbourne to Shanghai one-way ticket through a sketchy Chinese airline's website. Totally fine.

Of course I was overly thorough in my logistical preparations, booking all accommodations in advance and trying to consider all the little things I might need. Like a cell phone that will work overseas (not Sprint!). And a way to check email on-the-go (horray new iPod!). And the means to power it all (fancy new plug adapter).

My trusty companion for the whole journey is an Osprey-brand hiking backpack. I now have 72 hours to figure what to stuff in it. I hope to pack it well.