Murf: Queenstown to Christchurch

Well, all worked out luckily with the bus. There where not 1, not 2 but 3 people on standby and I was first. (I really hate arriving late.) They could at least take me to Twizel but being nothing there but Mount Cook I doubted about taking that opportunity anyway or then stay in Queenstown and try to get onto the Nevis again. But, at the end around 6 people didn't show up so there was plenty of space for the 3 of us. The road to Christchurch was a fairly long trip, with only the mandatory toilet, food and photostops we arrived in Christchurch around 5:30pm. As Base BP was the most familiar hostel for me in town (and I kinda liked the bar downstairs last time) I booked in for 3 nights. Those nights and days are over now, just half an hour before I have to check out and dump all my stuff downstairs but it was a crazy time. I spent all those days shopping and all the nights hanging in Saints & Sinners though I did do some cultural thing by going to the Art Gallery which was fairly interesting. (And believe it or not, I FINALLY found a book I promised to someone about Maoiri Tattoo's, not really small, not really cheap but hey, after hours and hours of shopping you're so glad that you finally have it that you are willing to pay a little more...) I also bought some last-minute souvenirs AND I dyed and cut my hair. Surprise surprise, the hooligan look is gone, it's now black/purple and fairly short. Funky yet sophisticated if neccecairy. (When looking for a job for example.)

The nights where absolutely crazy, I think maybe even the best I've had so far. Wednesday was really dull, so I used that as a day off and had only 2 beers before going to bed and updating my diary @ 11:00pm. But tuesday and yesterday where like party nights have to be. Dancing, drinking, getting kicked out of the pub at closing time (2:00am), and just simply having the time of your life. Aparently leaving within a matter of days DOES make you more interesting. (Thanx girls! ;-P)

Last night ended though not entirely the way I wanted. I had a burger at Burger King earlier at night and aparently the burger was still allive giving me a massive screwup of my entire digestive system. Luckily the first symptoms showed up after my night out and wile asleep but it more or less completely ruined my night. I got up at 4am never to see my bed again and spent the night haning over the toilets, chatting with the night guard and the internet. The nightguard felt more or less sorry for me as it wasn't due to alcohol so I got 2 hours for free! Had a funny time down there though, watching totally pissed people passing by and chatting, one who after 15 minutes of trying to sleep leaning against the wall decided to sleep on the bench right in front of us. IN the hostel.

And still (9:28am) my body feel like a train has been driving over it, 3 times but there is no way in trying to go back to sleep again. There is no way of going into town either, I feel totally fucked up and probably my breakfast will be water, water and a bit of water. Ah well, at least I'm already partly in the Dutch timezone now. (But I won't go out in Sydney tonight, that's really asking for trouble now. Just a quiet night of sleep is all I need for now.)

Ok, that's it for now. Checkout within half an hour, then hanging around in the hostel recovering from the night and maybe just some hanging on the internet if there is a computer free. And then take the bus to the airport at 1:20pm. BTW BurgerKing got a sweet little compliant from me because they DID screw up, though you might blame it partially on me for not realizing my burger was still allive AND not listening to my intuition who already told me that I shouldn't go to BK in the first place anyway.

CY,

Murf

Tulamben wreck and baby steps

Diving is Cool!!! Wreckdiving is strange. But absolutely worth it. It was very nice. Especially if your buddy is just taking his first dive-babysteps... that is funny to see. It was my first wreck but certainly not my last. This was awesome. The second dive was a dropoff wall. Been there done that. But was stil very special with a huge lionfish, boxfish and an octopus. Overall 5 hours travelling, 4 hours in Tulamben with one hour under water...

Mick left yesterday. Today is easy. Tomorrow me and the rest of the guest I know here are leaving all together. Tonight last night out. Last chance to make the pole in Paddy's, the cage in Bounty and the bar in Troppozone unsafe. Tomorrow my last day. Hopefully wake up a bit in time, do my last packing. And grab a cab at 2 to fly at 4. The clock states 1.5 days to go and it is flying. Tonight my last bali meal. One hand I would love to stay. Other hand I love to see everybody back again.

See you the day after tomorrow. (scary to say that)

Love nicky

bali, the cold en diving

The cold is finally weakening. Michael and I decided to go diving tomorrow. It's so cheap that I couldn't leave it. So tomorrow Tulamben wreck is going to be our destination. Michael diving for the first time. (intro dive) And me just relaxen next to that. Will be an very nice experience after missing out on the Yongala. Next to that my times suddenly seems to fly here. Just a couple of days and I will accompany the dutch half of my family again.
Next to that I just received a little mail from my ozzy cousin. Who is getting married to a pommy... ;)
congratulations!!! And lots of fun that weekend in November...
Anything else forgot...
Ehmz ow jeah, airplanes are flying here more and more often because of holiday season. And the best part? My hotel is filling up with guys.....

Lots of love
Nicky

Murf: The Nevis, 134 meters down in 8 seconds flat.

Some people knew I was thinking of it. Some people actually knew that I booked the bloody bitch. But most of you barely know what I planned for today and what was one of the most thrilling experiences in my life! I've done a lot the last 6 months, travelled through Australia, been rock-climbing in the Grampians and almost pissed my pants because I was so friggin' scared on the second climb, done a 4x4-only track with our minivan which did made me (and Nicky) miss more than just a couple of heartbeats, finally became a certified SCUBA diver and did 25 dives in the Great Barrier Reef, walked a glacier in Franz Joseph and jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 12.000 feet in Fox Glacier. But a couple of days ago I realized today was my very last chance to do one of the most frightening things man can imagine, jumping of a 134 meter high pod with nothing more than a piece of rubber between you and the pod to safe you from sudden death. So with shaking fingers I slashed the knot and booked "The Nevis" via the AJ Hackett website. And today was the day. Today was Judgement Day, to separate the boys from the men. And I became a man today!

Yesterday night you could find me in the Altitude Bar 'till late to dance my feet of and scare away my fears. This morning I woke up at 7am, took a hot shower, brushed my teeth and walked slowly to the AJ Hackett center at the corner of the street. After a short brief, the usual weighing and signing a waiver where you basically sign for the fact that AJ Hackett is never responsible for any injuries including death while jumping. Better make sure your travel insurance is ok. (Not that it really matters, serious accidents don't really happen, it seems to be safer than crossing the street. But still...) And off we went, into the bus and up to the site. Mixed group, a couple of big lads with a massive pluche Lion, (Yes the Lion jumped as well, safely in the arms of all 5 lads, and off course had to sign a waiver as well.) 2 girls and some other fellows. Turned out I was not the only fool to make The Nevis his first bungy jump ever. Finally at the bungy site it turned out that I was the very lightest and THUS the last one to jump. *SHIT!* That definetely makes it harder as you can joyfully see how all other 13 people jumped and screamed before finally it's your turn. Surprisingly I slept quite well last night (though I woke up zillion times but mainly because I was afraid not to wake up on time and miss my opportunity.) and after my hot shower I really was ready to go. I was less nervous than I expected, maybe because I'm planning this since Nicky had done her jump and already had done some frightening things in OZ like my rock-climb and that 4x4 track. (Skydiving surprisingly was NOT one of them, a big rush, an awesome thing to do but not particularly scary.) So we got our harnass on, took the mini-pod to the big jumping platform and had lots of time to look down straight into the depth of the valley. And I did, the bottom of the mini-pod is a wire-frame, in the jumping-pod there is a big glass strip so you can look down all the way to the jumpers ahead and after you. If you sit on the sides of the jumping-pod you're actually sitting on glass and have the same stunning view. And I did. I watched all jumpers before me and sat and stood comfortably on the glass strips, not too scared of what would come within an hour. The lads where brave, they all jumped the first time though one got a bit scared when the pin tying your legs together got loose before he was all the way down so he jumped attached to hist waist instead of head-down attached to your feet. But he was already in mid-air when it happened so there is nothing you can do about it then. And then it was the turn of one of the girls. 54321 JUMP! *hesitation* *nothing* 54321 JUMP! *hesitation* *nothing* 54321 JUMP! And off she went, finally, 134 meters down. Brave girl. I'm impressed with people who hesitate a couple of times and then DON'T chicken out but just jump. And then, after some more waiting it was finally my time... Meanwhile one of the crew asked me if I wasn't terribly afraid as I was shaking all over my body but THAT was because of the cold. I wanted to do this jump in my lucky Dollypop shirt, and therefore left my comfortable fleece behind in the base station. But it was friggin' freezin out there and after an hour waiting I really almost died of hypothermia up there. Luckily the sun came out and sitting on the side of the pod I warmed up a bit.

All the time in the jumping-pod I drummed on my legs on the rithm of the music, because I felt quite comfortable and it was a way to ease my mind a bit as off course I WAS scared, a bit. So off my glasses (no way you can jump with 'm, you'll loose 'm), into the chair, getting strapped up and still smiling and drumming on my legs. Looking sweet to the camera, giving 2 big OK signs (divers style, no thumbs up but 2 O-signs) and with my legs firmly together I had to wobble to the jumping platform. Wobbling is the only way to do it, you only can move your feet 10cm or so. And there I stood, at the very edge of the platform knowing that if I would totally chicken out and not jump I'd loose the full $199,- which I paid for this jump and make a total fool of myself. Not only for all of you guys but mainly for myself.

This was what I was waiting for 9 months, this was my moment, this was the last part of conquering my last fears. I used to be afraid of heights and therefore decided to challenge them my whole life by climbing onto towers, climbing 100 meters up the rocks, climbing indoors, jumping out of airplanes and doing walks while it goes straight down just 30cm from where you stand. I used to face my fears and not letting them take over. Because I'm afraid of railway crossings I slowed down and walked over them. Because I'm afraid of the dentist some odd combination of circumstances made me going there way too many times, back home AND in Australia. Because I'm afraid of needles I planned to go to Indonesia so I had to get my shots. And here I was, afraid of heights and challenging them by bungy jumping of the highest site in New Zealand and one of the highest in the whole world. There I was, after looking to all jumpers before me, standing at the very very edge and the point of no-return.

So there came the countdown. FAST! 5,4,3,2 *SWOOOOOOSH!* And Murfie was gone, plunging down with a rough 125Km/h into the grey. Screeming so loud that my throat still hurts right now, so loud that even the crew made a remark on it when I was back in the pod, screaming so loud that all who where already back on Terra Firma could hear me screeming from the viewing platform and agreed that I did the loudest scream of all, screaming the full 8 seconds, 134 meters down. *WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!*
FUCK! That was truly scary. So unnatural to plunge yourself off a ledge into the depth. It goes straight into all your natural senses. People are not built to fall and while skydiving you barely have a notion about the hight, here you definetely DO! But I did it, not the best style in the world (the first part I was almost vertical, heads UP instead of down but with my arms widely spread and not mowing around as some people tend to do, aparently to get grip on erhm, what, air?) but I did it! After the second bounce (or was it the third?) I yanked out the pin who tied my legs together and had a leisury bounce and great view off what I just did. I screemed again, or more, yelled. A big and massive WHOOOOOHOOOOOOO!. Whacked my arms into the air, totally hyper of the fact that I suddenly realized I just DID it. I jumped the friggin' Nevis! It was over way too soon, the wench came down to pull me up again and after less than a minute I was back on the platform. Exhillarated. Back into the pod. Back to Terra Firma. Back to the bus after watching my video and photo's. And while before my jump I decided to do it with just the photo's I was glad that they tape all jumps and that you have the chance to buy your DVD (or video) afterwards anyway. And I did, it was a great sight seeing myself plunging down in the depth. As I don't have a VCR I decided to go for the DVD. WITH my scream on it! (Though I didn't hear that yet as the video-footage in the base station is soundless.)

40 minutes later we where all back in Queenstown and now I'm the proud owner of my own set of Bungy photo's, 3 bungee shirts (one of The Nevis, one which is a bit controversial as it insinuates more or less that I DIDN'T jump and a longsleeve with just AJ Hackett Queenstown on it), some fridge magnets and 2 pieces of bungy cord. (Nicky, as promised, one is for you, even though it doesn't have a nice AJ Hackett Queenstown label on it it IS a genuine Queenstown bungy cord!) And I'm just happy. Awfully glad that I did this at the very last end of my 6-month journey. Awfully proud of myself that I didn't chicken out and actually awfully proud that I wasn't as freightened as expected.

Don't get me wrong, it's awfully SCARY! Bungy jumping is definetely not for the faint-of-heart. It's a massive, adrenaline pumping thrill ride. But aparently I did have enough guts to stay reasonably calm under it. :-) And tonight? I'll celebrate it with a couple of coldies down at the bar. I still have a 2-for-1 voucher left and that will go tonight, together with a lot more of the yellow gold. I'll dance my legs off, party 'till I drop. I deserved it. ;-P

Murf: Te Anau - Milford - Queenstown

Back in Queenstown and really almost at the end of the trip. This website says 6 days, 8 hours and 6 minutes which is pretty accurate on the time of writing. But let's not focus on that, let's focus on what happened since I wrote my last entry in Te Anau. (Correctly pronounced like tIanau and not ti-anAU what you might exped.) Meanwhile I try to upload some new pictures as the last films are nicely put onto CD as well. (And that dit cost me an arm and a leg at one photoshop but hey, that's too bad. At least you get what you want, pretty pictures from New-Zealand.)

So I did do the Doubtfull Sound trip. There is not much to do in Te Anau and I really wanted to be able to compare the Doubtfull and the Milford sound as I heard they where totally different. Well, they are. Doubtfull Sound is much more mellow than Milford, less steep mountains and covered with forest, plus that Doubfull around 4x as big is as Milford. It was an amazing day, starting crossing the lake, then into the hydro-powerstation which was really impressive, completely underground and very very noisy. Then over a snowy pass where we had the first glimpse of Doubtfull from a stunning height. Down to the harbour and onto another boat for a 4 hours cruise over Doubtfull with at the end (because the sea was extremely gentle that day) a rock full of NZ Fur-Seals. We approached the rock 'till about 2 meters and had a terrific view of the seals. And then it was time to go back, all the way into Doubtfull, over the pass and cross the lake and back to Te Anau. Starting at 8:45am and back at 6:30pm with a small but affordable ($130,-) operator on 2 small boats and just 11 people. Apart from an ADHD 12yo kiddy the cruise was marvellous. Way better than a stuffed boat with 200 people on it. The whole group was very close and I had some great conversations there though it was pretty cold on top of the boat.

Next day it was time to get the Kiwibus again to Milford and do the Milford-cruise but as the road conditions wheren't to good they had to skip the early boat-trip and went on the trip which didn't include the underwater observatory. Lucky me, I already planned to stay an extra day in Milford and had the chance to go onto the boat the next day, which off course I did and therefore DID go to the underwater observatory. The first night I spent playing chess in the hostel with a m'te I met on an earlier kiwi-bus, then the next day (sunday) we took the Milford Cruise together. Indeed there is a massive difference between the 2. Milford had very, very sheer rock faces. Very impressive. The boat capable of 150+ passengers only had a whopping 10 people on board and Milford's water was really mellow so we had a fabulous crouse again WITH the observatory. The last one was really sweet, taking you down to 8 meters below waterlevel and there you could see what you otherwise only discover when you go SCUBA diving there. Unfortunately the SCUBA diving was closed for the winter but this was at least the closest I could get and I did see some black-coral and other interesting stuff down there. All the way out to the sea and almost getting blowed off the upper deck and getting REALLY cold as it was sunny but it's still winter down here. On the way back we had a nice shower under one of the permanent waterfalls, icy cold but a very cool experience. The kicker came at the end, a troop of ~10 dolphins following our boat so close that I actually managed to get some sweet closeups of the second most intelligent creatures on earth. (If you don't understand what I mean, read The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy!) The night we spent in the local pub watching the rugby game (B&I Lions vs Allblacks, the Allblacks squashed the Lions with 21-3, WHOOOHOOO!). I'm not really into rubgy but I'm starting to like it and it's always good to have some people around. Besides, Milford is really small, 50 inhabitants, 1 hostel, 1 pub and a massive harbour for the 1500-2500 people visiting the sound every day. BTW "sound" is not the right term, a sound is a flooded river and this is a flooded glacier bed. So it should be called a fjord instead, but hey, we're in Kiwiland ;-P

And yesterday I got the Kiwibus back to Queenstown for the last leg of my trip. Pickup at 3pm at the harbour and back in Queenstown at 7:30pm. The hostel I took was not the best one, Discovery Lodge is clean but it's a bit too clinic for me. But it was a familiar place and next-door to a bar. But too bad, no 8-bed cheap dorms available for 2 nights so I had to go for a 6-bed dorm which is $2,- per night more expensive... Ah well, I won't die from $4,- and a 6-bed dorm is a little more spacious than a 8-bed plus that worst-case I only have to wake up 5 people instead of 7 when leaving way too early as this morning where I had my alarm clock at 7am and left the hostel at 7:45 after a nice hot shower. (Story follows in a couple of minutes...)

With a bit of luck I'll arrive in Christchurch tomorrow but some bastard busdriver forgot to book me on that bus so when confirming my seat for tomorrow I heard that I could only be put on standby. AGAIN! That sucks, means that I have to be at the pickup-point 300 meter from my hostel at 9am with the risk I have to return to my hostel again and miss out one of my 2 planned Christchurch days. We'll see.

balinese roads & liquer

The title states two words that don't go together. Can tell you that it hurted very much. And to explain the whole situation. (long live talking in riddles) The roads here are shit. You have to look constantly where you are walking to not drop on your nose. So as soon as you talk to one of your mates or look in a shop. You are very prone to fall over. And then you got alcohol. I don't walk that steady already. That night a bit worse after a night out. Walked on the street and bumped my toe. Didn't work that well. After couple of meters found that my flip-flop was a bit slippery. In the light it looked quite bad. At home i found out. (together with my mate Mick) that it was quite bad. But to drunk you put a bandage on it (after cleaning it) and go to sleep. Next day walking was poor. But now after couple of days I can say that everything is fine. Toe looks good and is pretty much healed. But then you always got knives you think are too blunt. Wrong. So cut my finger pretty bad. But bandages enough.

Did I do something else. I enjoyed with the guys. Went out. Got a very heavy cold. Which at this moment prevents me from goin diving. (dammit!!) So thumbs up that me and Mick get better. So we can go diving on tuesday. Because he leaves on wednesday...
But I am having a lot of fun. Leaving seems to come closer suddenly really fast. Doing some heavy shopping today. And enjoy some more sunshine for the rest of the week.

Kuta has a big carnival going on from tomorrow till the 3rd of Juli. With lots of partying on the beach. And enjoying some surfers/skaters. Relax and chill. I'll be allright...

Murf: Invercargill to Stewart Island to Te Anau

Because I'm bored (again!) a short story about the past couple of days. I left Invercargill the next morning a tad too early (9:00am) to hop onto a tiny 8-person airplane at Invercargill Airport for a 20 minute flight to the airstrip of Stewart Island. As the flight only goes to 1500 feet (I asked the pilot on the way back) you'll have a terrific view over Stewart Island. It's truly impressive from the air! Landed, went to my hostel and then to the information center to check some things out for the next 2,5 days. After that went downtown to the only village on the island, Oban. (350 inhabitants) There is not much to do in Oban though, all shops open or on request or from 1:00pm - 3:00pm, exept from the General Store. (In this case called "Ship to Shore".) So I chilled out a bit on the beach and went shop-hopping afterwards. Got home with some minor stuff and 3 T-shirts, of which 2 are yet in back-order and will be sent to me when I come home. Spend the night peacefully watching TV and eating apples and had my room for myself! (YEAH! And it had a 2-person bed so I stole that one, no one would care anyway.) The next day I booked a small trip to Ulva Island with a boat-trip and a 1-hour guide over the tiny island in Stuart Island. As I was the only passenger on board I had a boat, a skipper and 2 guides all for myself. Awesome! I had a great tour there and had a very close contact with a "Weka", the only predator on Ulva Island. (It's a flightless bird, bit smaller than a Kiwi.) After 3 hours we where back in Oban and I decided to go on the Semi-Submarine as well as I DID want to see part of the underwater life on Stewart. SCUBA diving was not an option, too cold and withouth bringing your own divebuddy you couldn't go anyway. Again I was the only passenger on board and had a great value for the buck ;-P Spent the night again quietly in the hostel, only to know that I finally had a roommate. (But we only said HI.) Next day I did basically nothing but spending 1,5 hours on cleaning out my pocket knife while sitting on a deserted beach just 10 minutes out of town. Ultimately relaxed having the luxury to be able to do that for a while. And the night ended in the pub as I met a new roommate who DID want to go for a beer to kill the boredom on the island. But far too soon (the next morning) it was time to fly back to the mainland again in an even smaller airplane (6 persons including the pilot). I hopped in the shuttle and onto the Bottom Bus again, loaded with 10 other persons. What a difference. Stewart Island is SO empty. There is nothing there but a shitload of nature. And even though I didn't do any of the tracks because I was too lazy I definetely had a great time. It's probably the southern most I'll ever go and so extremely quit that I definetely would recommend it to anyone who needs some time to do totally nothing.

While the Bottom Bus brought me safely to Te Anau that day I was still thinking about the island. And now I'm in Te Anau. The bus arrived quit (?) early so I had some time to develop my 4 films (I lost one which I found back today...) and to book some stuff for today and tomorrow. I almost chocked when I got the bill for those 4 films, $96,- including putting 'm all on CD and and hour and a half internet... And no way I can upload 'm here in the village, too slow connections everywhere. But well, that 'll come later. Did the usual stuff like groceries and after a LONG shower went to the pub to watch the rugby. Not that I'm interested at all but it's always nice to have a couple of pints in a loaded pub. Though the pub was almost empty as soon as the game ended so went back quit early and after a bit of chatting went to bed...

Today had an easy morning, had a chat with a new roommate, a dutch guy. So I spoke dutch for the first time in whatever weeks. It was hard, extremely hard. I managed to keep up a bit of speed but my mind was dazzling afterwards, completely unused to speaking dutch full-speed. And yes, I must 've had an English accent and I definetely mixed english words all over the scentences.

Anyway, the afternoon I spent on a trip to the Te Anau Glowworm Caves, a 25 minute boat trip followed by a combination of a couple of barges and a short walk through the caves. The trip through the caves itself was quite short and all concrete paths so that also oldies could easily do it but it was actually kinda impressive. The fast-flowing water all over the place but off course specially the main attraction, the Glow Worms. I don't know how long they left us in the barge in pitch darkness (I couldn't even see my fingers while I touched my nose...) but it was truly amazing. All those tiny little lights at the ceiling and no sound but the sound of fast flowing water. No one dared to make a sound, I doubt if some people even stopped breathing. Way too soon it was all over again and we went back to the ship to enjoy the 25 minute ride back. And I spent the full 25 minutes in the open air though it was COLD outside. My Driza-Bone kept me nicely warm and out of the wind :-)

And that was it for today. Tomorrow I'll do a full day tour through the Doubtfull sound and then up to Milford. Someone just asked me if it was "friday next week" when it's all over here and suddenly I realized it IS. It's just "sunday next week" that I'll be safely on Schiphol Airport. So I'll take the time to enjoy these last bits of my "holiday of a lifetime"...

Murf: Queenstown to Invercargill

Half past 9 in the afternoon, somewhere in Invercargill. (Tuatara Backpackers) While the last story ended in Queenstown it wasn't my last day there... But, I took it really easy the next day and decided to be plain lazy. So I basically spent the evening doing some shopping in Queenstown and chilling out in the TV-room, not really in for more booz-nights. The next morning Mariah left and how sweet it was of her, she woke me op because she totally missed the fact that I did NOT had to take the bus to Christchurch. So I was awake way too early and more or less spent the day doing erhm, nothing at all. Not entirely true though, I went shopping and bought myself a New-Zealand Monopoly game because I didn't have any at home and really liked that as a souvenir. Bit sad though that buying the game set be back $60,- and shipping it over to Holland yet another $24,- But it's worth it and taking it home in my backpack impossible. Went to the beach for a great view of the mountains behind Queenstown (it's winter so there is some snow on it) and headed to the cinema to view Mr. & Ms. Smith. Nice movie though not really a must-see. In the cinema I met some bloke from the first kiwibus and we had exactly one beer together before he got back to his hostel and I went upstairs to fix myself up for a few hours in the bar downstairs. Had to grab the bus to Dunedin the next morning at stupid-o-clock (7.45am) and really didn't want to make it too late. Well, it was 0:30 before I finally found my bed but I had a fairly good night down at the bar so it was not too bad.

The next morning the Bottom-Bus arrived and we headed straight to Dunedin (meanwhile visiting the steepest street in the world which I did NOT climb because I was too damn lazy) to dump off our luggage and make a dash for the peninsula where we had the chance to hop into a 8-wheel-drive vehicle to see some specteculair wildlive. The trip was a bit too short to my opinion but we DID see some very impressive things. First of all we headed to a colony of baby furseals. Because we where in a shelter we could come REALLY close to those pups (mom was a couple of meters further on the rocks). Impressive. A bit later we headed towards a shelter above the beach and there we saw far, far away one of the rarest creatures on earth, a Yellow-Eyes pinguin. Hard to see, the poor fella was already scared by us being at 300 meters distance after we all hid in a shelter he finally walked over the beach where we had a nice view of him. Right behind us, leaving the shelter on the backside we had a close contact with the smallest pinquins in the world, the Blue Pinquin. The lad was asleep underneath a rock and we could come as close as just 3 meters or so. *Wauw!* And then it was time to go back to the bus. Way too early. The 8wd vehicles where pretty cool though, plunging through the roughest terrain I've seen without any trouble. (They're amphibious and fairly comfortable.)

Back to the hostel (still an hour drive from the peninsula) and straight to the Speights Brewery for a tour. Not much to say about it, it was just very nice... I spend the night in the hostel near the woodfire, meanwhile having a talk with one of the Irish girls I'd met on one of my Kiwi busses. I didn't expect her there but we had a really nice talk. Next day she left and I went to check out town AND to the Taieri (?) Gorge Railway, a scenic railway trip of 4 hours. Costed me a whopping $48,- but is was worth it as the train goes through terrain not even cars can come and really has some amazing views. And so my first full day in Dunedin ended. That night I decided I'd spend the night as a homesick alien erhm, Dutchie, found some Grolsch in the supermarket, loaded my basked with a 6-pack of it and shitloads of TimTams and other nice chocolate thingies, a girls-magazine and nestled myself safely in front of the woodfire. Surprisingly I felt really happy that night. A bit as a clown with a tear in one eye but a really big smile on my face. It just felt so lovely homey there in Adventurer Backpackers and having a Grolsch in my hands (Grolsch is brewed in my hometown Enschede and exported all the way from there to New-Zealand in 33cc bottles) made it just perfect.

The next day (thursday) was real easy day. The plan was just to go shopping and that's exactly what I did. Not that I bought much, a new silver ring for myself (with a cute dolphin, I actually bought 2 for $5,- each) and some earrings who I just keep as a present for someone. (And I really don't know who yet, I just liked them and they where only $10,- so I bought 'm.) But I ended up in the Cadbury chocolate factory. I haven't been in any chocolate factory yet and well, it just seemed nice to visit one while I had the chance. Pretty ok, you feel a bit like Willy Wonka and though the tour is kinda aimed at the little ones under us it was still a very nice tour. Only buying a purple t-shirt failed as they didn't have a XL version. But THAT will be fixed as one email solved it all and they'll ship one to Holland as soon as I paid for it. (Not a problem.)

Again another night in front of the woodfire and to bed early as I had to catch a bus at 7:45am. *BLERGH!* Anyway, that was this morning and it seemed like ages ago as today was soo bloody stuffed. The whole trip would normally take just 2,5 hours but we arrived here in Invercargill around 6:30pm. And why? Well, because this leg of the trip you spend a lot of time OUTSIDE the van and IN the nature. We did 4 small walks along the way and took all touristic routes possible. Saw some really impressive nature, frozen lakes, a sea-lion in the sand-dunes from quite close (6 meters) and again a yellow-eyed pinquin. (But again at 300 meters distance as those creatures are extremely shy by nature. Extremely rare as well, I tought there where around 600-1000 of them in the whole world, all of 'm in New-Zealand.) We also stopped at some wacko's gallery in the middle of knowhere who made all funny stuff out of mostly just junk. He lives in an old big bus with his dog and the township is so small I don't even remember the name. Had a quite funny mailbox though, a Mail Whale, indeed in the shape of a whale. Just a tad smaller.

So the trip took us little longer than you would normally expect but it was worth it. And now I'm in Invercargill. It should've been Curio Bay but as the bus only had 6 people in it it was easier for them to head straight to Invercargill (an hour drive from Curio Bay). That is an advantage for me though. Tomorrow I'll fly to Stewart Island and thanx to the fact that I'm already in Invercargill (where the airport is) I can take the morning flight instead of the afternoon one, which gives me just a couple of hours extra on the island. I decided to go by plane because it was just $14,- more expensive than by boat and you get more or less a free scenic flight for free as you're travelling in a really small airplane (6-8 people). Stewart Is. should be great though I don't have the time (and the knees and condition) to do a big hike there. I'll probably stay more or less where I am though I am planning a small trip per water-taxi ($25,-) to a tiny island IN Stewart Island. I'll leave the island on monday the 20th to go straight to Te Anau, spend there 2 days and then go to Milford Sound. As time is running out a bit I have a fairly strict planning to make it back to Christchurch but the planning is very easy in a way that in every place the bus stops I have at least 1 day extra to spend. So though strict I really DO take it very very easy. I just want one day in Queenstown to party hard (and go to the ice-bar) and then a couple of days in Christchurch to check out Hagley Park, the tower and again, party very very hard to celebrate my last days on this island. 16 days to go before I'm home, just 13 before I fly back to Sydney and the big journey home starts. (Including my flight to Sydney and my 22 hours stopover there it'll take me a full 3 days to fly back.)

Well, that's it for now :-)

BTW what is really wicked and still confuses me a bit is that my social life seems to get stronger while I'm away. Already 2 old friends of mine suddenly mailed me and made clear that they DO want to have contact again. Friendships who I had back home became stronger the 2,5 months before I left and even got stronger while I'm away and one of the most important things I've learned over here is that my friends are probably the most important things in my life. That HAS been different. There was a time where my computers where firmly no. 1, closely followed by my girlfriend at that time. But I can assure you now that that has changed completely. I still like computers (and though I wanted to leave the whole IT for what it was before I left, right here I learned that I do love computers but just want a job where I can combine my love for technical stuff with my love for working with people) but they're definetely NOT no. 1 anymore. And really, I like it. No, I don't like it. I LOVE IT!

Nicky, the rooster and the elephant

Kay my days are very easy. Get up get breakfast. (all included is always very nice) Read a bit. Have an activity. Go to internet. Have some food. And end up drinking on the bar. Followed by an early night to bed or goin out late.
Those are my days, relaxing and not to exciting.

The only difference this week;

I was looking at a skirt I very much liked. So I got it taylor made. Which costed me EUR$15,- or AUS$20,- And the loveliest skirt ever.

Also I joined a couple of tours. First of all; elephant (thanx robin) riding. That was a weird but gourgious experience. Had the best time ever. Although there not native here. (imported from sumatra) Adelhi was the best elephant to me and let me even ride a bit on her head. (like the riders do) Heaps of fotos. And an unforgettable experience. Recommended!
Next to that I was going to go rafting that afternoon. Bit sceptical. In New Zealand I had rapids grade 4-5. (hardest possible) Over here because of the drought they were 1-2. The stories of the guest weren't that positive eiter. But hey as a dutchy I don't resist a free tour. So after a very long stair we were goin in the boat and away we were. Scenery made my mouth fall open. (sorry for all the flies I swallowed) Twas the most gourgious ride I ever had. Rapids weren't tough. But gave me enough time to talk and look around. On the end when we were pretty tiered we had to walk to many stairs up. But wasn't that bad as the guest told me. And the rafting was more than worth it. Had a good dinner and went to bed... ZZZZzzz.

Today suddenly was a rumour that people were going to cockfigting. (with rooster uhu) Although the guys from the hotel tried to get me in their room to see some 'cock'fighting. In an instant I said yes. Although doubtfull I still wanted to see this side of Indonesian culture. Went there with some other people. Watched with my eyes but hasn't klicked yes in my brain. Was the weirdest thing I ever did. Wouldn't do it again. But feel very double about the whole thing. Can't even say if it was great or horrible. But if I find out you will hear.

So far for today
Lots of Love
Nicky

Ps Although internet is not very fast here. (fastest I can get) I still managed to update some old photos from Frasier Island and Crocodile hunter zoo. Try to do every time a few. So far just a couple.

Murf: Fox - Wanaka - Queenstown

Aaaah, another short story again. Internet is tempting, specially when all your roommates are still asleep and you're bored like hell because you don't want to go shopping or bungee jumping and it's too early to hop in to the pub yet. And as there is not much to do otherwise in Queenstown, I ended up in this internet cafe.

So after my skydive, what happened next? Well, I got into this kinda allright hostel in Fox and did basically nothing the rest of the day. I met some dutch girl (Rosalie) who was travelling around with a swedish and a austrian girl who she'd met on the road. Actually the first dutchie who I run into and I actually kinda liked. So we had a chat and decided to meet up next day in Wanaka again. They going by car, me going by Kiwi. That is, that was the planning. It turned out little different though I DID make it to Wanaka that day. Sitting in front of the hostel I suddenly heard the big hummm of the Kiwibus but while I expected it to turn into the street where the hostel is, it stayed safely on the mainroad running straight to Wanaka. The driver aparently totally had forgotten that he had someone to pick up in Fox. So I rang the Kiwi office and after a long while and some phonecalls they managed to get me onto the Atomic Shuttle at 10:40 who was due to depart at 10:50. And that worked out. I got crammed into the backbench of a 10-person minivan and made my way to the Purple Cow hostel in Wanaka that way. Took us a couple of hours but the American girl and Kiwi guy next to me where good company and I arrived safely in Wanaka. Got my photo's to the photoshop, did some groceries and after a while Rosalie and co. turned up in the hostel but it was too expensive to their taste so they left again. Had a great conversation and some wine that night with a ozzie couple who wanted to visit Europe next year and I invited them to my humble home to show them around. (See you next spring girls!) Had to share my room with 3 girls again (this time Irish girls travelling around on the Magic bus) but that was just for one night. The next day I spend doing basically nothing. To my surprise I met Rosalie and co. early in the morning, 2 of 'm couldn't find any other place so they DID sleep in that hostel. Anyway, they wanted to go to Puzzleworld as did I but we messed up and I ended up walking to PW allone, just a 2Km strawld. Puzzleworld was kinda ok, just worth the $10,- but not extraordinairy to my taste though. Spend the rest of the day in the hostel and shopping around a bit and found an empty room. It turned out to be that my roommates showed up the NEXT MORNING at 7:00 as they where playing in town and had a heavy night afterwards. Anyway, my Kiwibus was due to depart round 9 so I hopped out of bed, did my thing and waited for the Kiwibus to take me to Queenstown. But first Puzzleworld again, as that was on the route to Qeenstown. As I had already been there I spend 1,5 hours doing some free puzzles and... MISSING MY BUS! I was looking at some puzzles and totally missed out that the group left, I ran outside just in time to see the busses butt turning onto the mainroad. I ran back inside, they rang Kiwi and after 5 minutes the bus was back again to pick me up. They hadn't missed me... That is, at the hostel I plunged next to a girl and she thought I found myself another place in the bus so she didn't report me as missing. After a while she realized I was really not on the bus and before the Kiwi call came in they already had turned around. Lucky me, it's no fun seeing the bus with all your stuff in it dissapearing in the distance while you're in the middle of nowhere...

Anyway, we had a nice chat and the bus took us to AJ Hackett's bungee bridge where some brave lads jumped off. After an hour or so we went off to Queenstown to book the Bottom-Bus and hop into our hostel. We more or less spend the rest of the night together in the bars in Queenstown where I met a lot of people from my previous bus who where already for a couple of days in Queenstown. Here is the place where everybody seems to stay for a LONG while. Very good to see those peeps again and have some fun together. The night ended for me at 2:30 when I was kinda pissed and tired and decided that it was time to go home, letting her having her fun in the Worldbar. And that's where this story ends. I'll spend 'till monday in Queenstown and get my bus to Dunedin on tuesdaymorning. Still 21 days to go so taking and spreading it. I'll be back in Queenstown within a week or to to spend another couple of days and then go to Christchurch...

BTW ID Checks are STRICT! Here in Queenstown every bar you enter asks for your ID and really checks it. If you're going outside for a smoke (in NO bar in NZ it's allowed to smoke) and you try to get in while you're kinda pissed they won't let you as I found out yesterday. Well, no hard feelings, I just waited outside for a while and after 5 minutes or so the doorman let me in again, back to the party. And indeed I wasn't entirely sober anymore by that time ;-P

I am still alive!!

The title stands a bit weard. But I just found out that my hostel was one of the keyplaces for the bali bommings. As the body's and harmed were brought in into the hotel and collected on the basketball court. And the empty spot in the corner on the street is the place where Paddy's stood. (now relocated and a bar I regular visit) On the other corner is the Bali memorial. And across the intersection is the second empty patch. Comes all scary close on that kind of moments.

My last couple of days is getting better. My fever is over. My bali belly still exist but I can live with that. Just those darn cramps that hurt so much. So I keep swallowing pain medication. But I walk talk and finally eat a bit again. Just small amounts but enough to live on.

What did I do since my last update... Ehmz lots and lots of nothing. Ow and some guys insisted that if I hadn't seen dreamland (beach) that I did not see any thing of bali. And because they were going there I just lifted along on their scooter. Which was as well my first time on the back of the scooter in bali traffic. Which is a survival of the fittest. No rules and just go as you can. Maximum speed is 70 km/h because of the amount of the traffic. Was pretty scary the first couple of minutes. But after that I enjoyed. We been to dreamland, Pedang Pedang (hope the right spelling) end Ullawatu. (again I hope the right spelling. Ullawatu the guys were going surfing while I had a swim. Pedang Pedang is the sweetest little beach. Very romantic. And Dreamland is gourgious beach. And all of them were bleu sea and white sand. The guys were right if you haven't visited these beaches you haven't seen bali.

So bali traffic is indeed vicious. Scooters enough. For every car roundabout 5-10 scooters on the island. And they know how to load them. sometimes even a family of 5 fits on it. Or complete stores. You name it they transport it. (kinda reminds me of my mom with her pushbike) Ow and crossing here is just gambling and not hesitating. You hesitate, you lose. You can wait for a long long time, if not forever.

Ow little piece about dutch in bali. Which I already wanted to write for a long time. Because indonesia already was a colony for a long long time of Holland. (or Netherlands whatever you want) There are some dutch words integrated in indonesian. Which leads to me to some recognition. And is quite fun to sea that you still can understand a bit.

Last line for my mommy; HAPPY BIRTDAY!!!!!!!!!! I know it was yesterday and I slightly forgot. But hope this makes a bit up. Love you lots and be home soon.

Love Nicky

Ps seeing a temple this afternoon.

Murf: Pictures from New Zealand

I thought it might never happen but the photoshop in Wanaka had an action... Burn your analog pictures on CD for FREE! Now we're talking ;-P Anyway, I've put 3 rolls online, mainly about my skydive, my glacier-walk and the trip from Franz Josef to Wanaka. The order is crappy and not time-based but still, have fun:
http://gallery.somewheresouth.net/murf_newzealand

Murf: 12.000 - 0 feet in 10 minutes

WHOOOHOOOOO!

I've done it! My first skydive straight from 12.000 feet. (Round about 4000 meters.) After a very beautifull ride from Franz Josef to Fox by car we ended up at the airstrip an a small office where a small Cessna was waiting for me to take me up all the way to 12.000 feet. Some short instructions, emptying my pockets, tying my shoelaces, putting on a jumpsuit and taking out my camera's it was time to go. Sitting straight next to the door in the crampy Cessna (there where only 3 of us, my tandem-diver and another skydiver who went down on his own) we ran the runway and took off much faster than I expected. Looking at the altitude meter I saw it slowly going to 12.000 feet while I had the chance to take some pictures with my biggie-cam of the scenery. That already was worth it, snowy mountains, mount Cook and a beautifull view of the Fox Glacier. And then it was time to go. Got my goggles and hat strapped straight into my head, my small camera safely tucked away in my jumpsuit (I could take it down to take shots of the last phase while haning under the parachure.) The airplane went to a steady cruise speed, the door went open and we where there, at the edge of going down. Got my feet out who where straight blown away to the right side, the wingshots where taken with a big OK to the camera mounted on the wing, the airplane made a tilt to the right and off we went! Thoug people warned me that you wouldn't be able to breathe the first 20 seconds I didn't have any of that trouble. Accelerating to round about 200Km per hour we went straight down in a beatifull banana. Looked up to see the airplane dissapear very fast and enjoyed the awesome view and the feel of maximum speed. Indescribable what that does to you, you don't really have a feel of how fast you're falling but the wind blows around your ears, your hat feels like it's coming off and you're going down. But THAT is the thing you don't really realize. The ground is coming at you but it's going slow... I yelled out loud a big WHOOOHOOOO of excitenment. After a couple of seconds we met another stranger in the sky. That was the guy behind us who did a solo-jump! We shaked hands in the air while freefalling. AWESOME! Bet not many tandem-jumpers will have that experience on their way down... It's the same odd sensation you get when your SCUBA diving and suddenly meet other people down there. After a while you almost get used to it but it's strange.

After fully enjoying the 45 second freefall I felt some juggling behind me and suddenly **SNAP!**, a deceleration followed by an immense silence! The parachute was up 'n running and suddenly we where soaring in mid-air, slowly going down to mother earth. I could even talk to my instructor there. Took some pictures while soaring down under the parachute, got control of it for a couple of seconds, took some more pictures and way too soon it was time to lift my feet up in the air to prepare for the landing. On my BUTT! Feet up high and skidding over the grass we made contact with Mother Earth again. More shots of me, my instructor, the parachute, etc and we where off to go back to the airstrip, 7Km away from the dropzone. After getting my T-shirt (which says something like "12.000 feet, 200Km/h I had the attitude, they had the altitude, so I jumped.") and certificate (though credit-card sized I'll frame that with a couple of pictures at home) off to Ivory Towers Hostel in Fox.

And there I am. Had a late-breakfast, went to buy some souvenirs and back at the hostel now. Still completely floating and with the biggest smile you can imagine on my face. This is amazing. Just last week I realized that I was dreaming about skydiving since I was 8 and I still have the skydive-book I read to schreds somewhere in my collection. It's sacred now. I finally did it. Scary? Not at all. I got a tid bit nervous just before we reached 12.000 feet but that was about the same level as you get nervous when your bus is 5 minutes too late and you're not sure if you can make your next connection. And then way less. It was a nice tickling sense of nervousness. Nothing serious. Skydiving is not scary if you've ever flown in any airplane before, the altitude is way too high to have any sense of it. It's just a wonderfull sensation to suddenly jump out of it and plunge down to earth with a speed your own car even doesn't make. Followed by a really relaxed and quiet ride down under the parachute. Really, it costed me a whopping $325,- for the jump, the wing-photo's and the T-shirt but it was worth every single dollarcent of it! Still floating, still with my head up in the air, still completely thrilled and with wobbly knees... I hope part of this feeling will stick to me the rest of my life and if I have the chance to do it all again I'll definetely do it. It was wonderfull, way too short, I'd love to stay up there for hours but gravity is against you. What is really kinda odd is that the ground doesn't seem to come any closer, not during the freefall, not during the parachute-part of it. It's really when your butt hits the ground that you realize you're back again. It all seems to go so slow. It's just a 8 minute ride in total, 45 seconds freefall, 7 minutes under the parachute but it feels like hours and it's totally amazing.

But I was never really scared, just utterly excited. :-))

Murf: Christchurch to Franz Josef

Well, I'm on the Kiwi Experience bus now. Or more, WAS on the Kiwi-Xperience bus as I left the bus and group for 2 days and decided to spend a little time here in Franz Josef where the main feature of the town a big ice-slide known as the "Franz Josef Glacier" is. To start at the end, I indeed did walk on it, yesterday. It's an uncomfortable bus-ride of 10 minutes to the carpark and then a full hour walk before you're actually on the ice but then really the fun starts. Putting some Ice Talonz under your sturdy boots (you do get everything from socks to coats to boots from your guide) and here we go, taking our first steps onto the ice. With those Talons it was not THAT slippery but you have to walk in a but funny way to assure your grip, pretending you're a giant and really whack your feet into the ice as you traverse. A little up the hill where it gets nasty you even get an ice-axe/walking-stick to help you over the ice. We've spend around 7 hours on the ice and in one word it was STUNNING! Really amazing to be there. Unfortunately just 1 small little cave where we could go through but we had 2 very crampy crevices where we had to traverse through. Bit nasty for the one girl who was a bit claustrofobic and the exposure was not too pleasant for those who are afraid of heights but we all managed to make it all the way up and down. I decided to go in the slowest group of 'm all (there where 4 groups) so that I would have a little more time to take some pictures. That was a good choice and I ended up mainly at the end off the group as there where the ppl who had some trouble finding their grips on the ice. Always nice to help eachother out isn't it? :-) Back at the hostel I was pretty much dead but still managed to get some food at the local bar with the end-group of the day and as I couldn't get my sleep afterwards I spend some time looking to the local music-channel and finally finding my bedroom at 0:15 or so to be woken up at 7:15am because my roommies had to catch the 8:00am bus.

This time I shared my room with 3 girls though looking at the list the day before I thought it would be a bloke-only room. So as well as I they where kinda surprised to find a guy organizing his stuff in the room when they entered. Today it turned out what went wrong... I was on the list for room 308 which was indeed a blokes room but they gave me the key of 306! I was only about to find that out this morning when I booked myself in for 2 more nights in this hostel (Rainforest Retreat, Franz Josef, NZ). It's really close to town (3 minutes walk), it's cheap ($18,- a night), has good and HOT showers, has good overall facilities (internet, kitchen, big tv, etc) and is quite modern and everything.

But, how did I end up here? (And can I dump that here in a mere 35 minutes as 2 of my 5 recharche-internet-cards are not working and I have to fix that at the reception of the hostel.) Well, the last night in ChristChurch was a remarkable one and a very good start for my trip... It started helping some stuntmen with a high-bike act (where the guy sadly mistook my both rings as being with someone or so, haven't they heard of "jewelry"!?), then did some killer-pool where I almost won. (Thanx to the fact that I seemed to have 3 instead of 2 lives, well, it wasn't me who was cheating...) A couple of drinks later I got approached by a guy who would get $10,- if he'd kiss a guy on the cheeck. (No worries 'bout that and when he retrieved the $10,- from his friends he gave it to me straight away so I got some free beer that night ;-P) As I really got the vibes that evening and the band was suddenly with 4 ppl and playing quite well I ended up dancing centre-court. Really freaked out that night, unfortunately temporarily lost my glasses on the dance-floor (followed by me on it's knees and to be retrieved by a guy sitting on the couch who saw me crawling around...) in makin a bit of a fool out of myself but hey, I didn't really care THAT much and had a great time freakin' out completely there. For some odd reason some old guy (could've been my dad) offered me a free beer which I happily took from him as I was in the mood of getting moderately pisseed. Funny was that inside a girl asked me where the f*ck I did get that energy from and outside some blokes told me that they where pretty impressed by me dancing. Ah well, I had a great time and even if I DID make a complete fool out of myself, I wouln't care less. I'll go home within a month and will never see them again and when I'm back in Christchurch it's a month later and they've forgotten me anyway.

Plan was to go to bed early as I had a bus to catch at 7:25am but I found my pillow around 2:00am and was kinda wasted the next day in the bus... The bus took me from Christchurch to Kaikoora with a bus full of strangers. Slept in the main hostel, TopSpot which turned out to be pretty allright as it was straight on top of a hill with the Alps and the ocean as a really beautifull backdrop. A part of the group went dolphin-swimming and whale-watching, I decided not to do anything of that as my budget is a bit tight after so much diving in Australia. TopSpot is sweet anyway, they have a cat (who turned out to be 19, she could've been 10), a record player (vinyl!) and a woodfire. Next day the trip went to the top of the south-island and to exchange drivers and a big part of the group @ Picton. A big part went to the north-island, I stayed on the south-island with some of the group members which I didn't knew very well at that time. We ended up with "Smiles" (our first driver was "Nancy", as they always nicknames and Nancy didn't dare to do the Nevis so earned the name Nancy Boy, his real name was Scott.). It was Smiles birthday and he decided to celebrate that that evening in the drivers lodge in Nelson. So after dumping our stuff in our rooms @ Prince Albert Hotel (which had dorm-rooms but was way too expensive for what it got you)) we went up to the sacred area and had a small party there. After a while we went downstairs for a couple of pints and later on downtown to a poolhouse for some more. Was kinda allright, hooked up with a couple of guys and finally went back to the hostel around 1am as I was sick of the party at that time. (A local tried to deal some drugs with us, that's the point where I decided to hook off, they where way too pissed anyway and I was quite sober when I left the party.) 10 minutes later I found the hostel where I expected it and got to bed, just to be woken up an hour later by a roommate who had hit it a little TOO hard and puked for an hour in the in-room bathroom. In-room bathrooms are really nice, no long walks to a big shared one but if one of your roommies gets sick it's pretty nasty as you really have to listen to his nasty sounds. Ah well, we survived the night and in the morgning I fell a bit sick. Think I had too much smoke and air in my stomach as my throat felt like I had swallowed raizorblades and sea-urchins. But luckily I didn't throw up and got to the bus in time, just to wait as I was on standby and had to wait for someone not to show-up that day. Those where a couple of painstaking minutes, the town was dull and unfriendly and I started to like the group so I really wanted to piss off. After 15 minutes Smiles decided that there was indeed a nowshow and gave me an OK sign to get on the bus. I almost jumped into the air and gave a big dubble-thumbs back, tossed my stuff in the bus and jumped on. Next stop was Westport in the rugged westcoast of the island but not after we've visited Lake Rotoiti in the northern-end of the Alps. That was awesome, snow on top and ice-cold water in the lake...

[Murf returns to his story after spending some hours downtown to get some souvies and a towel, which he lost a couple of hostels ago, relying on a small toilet-towel allone. Now suited with a cool All Blacks towel with a silver-fern print on it...]

Good, after Westport we headed to Greymouth to do some shopping for food and for the 80's party in Mahinapua that night. Too bad only the $2,- shop, The Warehouse and the supermarket where open so it was a bit difficult to get some descent stuff. Kinda shitty as in all towns before none of the 2nd hand shops where open. Well, I ran out with some car-sunscreens, a couple of pingpong balls and loads of sticky tape. Back in the buss everyone wondered what the hell I was going to do with those sunscreens and to be honest, I didn't have a clue either. Back in the buss we picked up the guys from the Rocket Buss who came straight from Christchurch and went down to Mahinapua. Along the way we did some walks and at the end of the day ended at the famous Mahinapua Hostel where the only official inhabitant of the settlement was "Lez", a 79 year old bloke who more or less kicked out all other inhabitants and solely lived there for the Kiwi-Experience and their party's and some friends of his.

This is the party where anything can happen and almost everyone gets pissed. And it happened. After a massive dinner (made by Lez and Smiles) some went to watch the Lion's game on tv and I went straight to my room to create my outfit for that night. As 80's was the theme and I only had sunscreens it was a bit tricky but I ended up like some odd combination of Ziggy Stardust and a robotman, my body, legs and arms covered in silverscreen, my yellow pants, my fluo shoe-laces and on my head a red shiny wig. When I finally entered the bar people looked, looked again and started applauding. No-one expected this outfit and most of 'm agreed that I definetely should be the winner of the dressing-contest that evening. I ran of straight to the bar, being still a rather shy personality I was a bit scared and really needed a pint of beer straight away, not used to so much attention. (People approached me the whole evening making compliments about my outfit. Strange as lots of 'm where quite well dressed but aparently I was by far the most original one.) The party was a fairly good one, not as good as the nights I spend in Christchurch but with the whole Kiwi-group together it felt really nice. Too bad our driver got so pissed that the contest was off so no free drinks for me that night but hey, I had my fun. And indeed all night people where fuzzing around eachother. Some girls really drooling around the better-looking guys in the group. With the 3 of 'm, he probably coul've had a threesome that night, if he would. I wouldn't, the girls where cute but not THAT cute... They seemed like 16 or less though I heard one of 'm talking about her drivers-licence the next day and they seemed to be buying alcohol legally so they must've been 18+. But no, not for Murfie, with a couple of way too good lookin' lads around there's no such thing as getting laid with any of the girls for a Murf.

Round about 1:00am I decided to go to bed, my head still fuzzy, my throat sour like hell and livin' on Paracetamol and vitamin pills. On the way out I busted 2 people of our group fuzzing around with eachother, obviously planning to do little more than just holding hands. When I was in my room I thought it might be handy to repack my bags so that I had an easy time next morning and while sitting in just my yellow pants suddenly the door opened. Same bloke, mumbling something like "Oh, this is, erhm, not really what I expected", a second or 2 later a familiar female face peeked around the door. Busted for the 2nd time in a row by the same person. Sorry folks! I apologized to them for being in the place where they wanted to be but there was nothing I could do about it, I was really tired and wanted to go to sleep.

Ah well, they found their quit spot next door regarding the giggling and funny noises coming from there. All walls where cardboard so privacy was a complete no-go anywhere in the building. I hope they had their fun but I had the feeling it was just for one night as the next 2 days they where no-where near eachother.

Next morning everyone seemed pretty dead and most of 'm must 've gotten pissed like hell that evening. One of my roommies tried to jump in his bed and almost fell out, the guy in the bottom-bunk yelling "What!? You've fallen out of your bed!?" "Well, now close the f*cking door and go to sleep!". Funny things.

Next morning we headed to Franz Josef, doing a big uphill walk of around 1,5 hours as a sort of warming up for the glacier walk next day. Me walking not close to anyone decided to put on his discman with Puddle of Mudd (Come Clean) loud on my headphones and rushed up and down the mountain in record-time. Took some nice pictures on the top and went down. I HATE going down, it's less tyring but just nasty and your toes hurt like hell. But it was a very nice little walk and definetely a good warming-up for the next day. After yet another couple of hours (and surviving the Can-Opener-bridge, so called because if you don't take the bridge right it'll tear your bus open like a can, luckily Smiles didn't make any mistakes and got a warm applause from the bus when we where at the other end) we where in Franz Josef, Rainforest Retreat to have a relaxed night. Wend to bed not too late as the next day was a busy one, doing the full-day glacier walk as I already told on the top of this entry.

And now I'm here in Franz Josef. This morning I booked for 2 extra days but that was a mistake. Tomorrow morning I'll go skydiving (12.000 feet!) which is in Fox Glacier so I deciced to let 'm pick me up here in Franz and after the dive drop me off in Fox so I can spend a night there in a hostel. Booked the skydive (pickup @ 8:45), bought a phonecard and called the hostel to book myself a bed. Went back to Rainforest and asked 'm to cancel 1 night so that I can stay in Fox tomorrow. And so it's done. I'll have to book my Kiwi Bus for thursday right now, pickup in Fox and then go down to Wanaka on thursday. I'll check my Lonely Planet to see if I'll stay an extra day in Wanaka or if I just head off to Queenstown.

Queenstown must be the adrenaline-capital of the southern hemisphere and is liturally surrounded by bungee-ropes but I probably skip the bungee as it's a little too expensive to my taste and I simply don't feel like it. But I do have 2 chances, in Queenstown I'll take the Bottom Bus to go all the way to Dunedin, Stuart Island and Milford Sound and after that I'll be back in Queenstown. When I'm back I'll spend a couple of days there before I take the bus which heads straight to Christchurch again. But we're talking about the far future right now, I'll have to be back in Christchurch by the 30th or the 29th and as it is just the 7th right now I still have plenty days to burn along the route. Maybe do some ski-ing in Queenstown, what I heard is that it's probably the first ski-field opening in New-Zealand... I haven't done any skiing ever but it must be pretty allright to at least try it for a day or 2.

Well, that's it for now. I'm curious how the next group will be and if I have little more connections with them than with this group. Don't get me wrong, it was a great group and after a while I really felt cool with 'm but I certainly lacked some connection with 'm.

My head is still fuzzy BTW, bit flue-ey, sniffing and coughing all over the place and not feeling too well. So I just might stick somewhere to recover a bit. Ah well, I have my daily pack of tea. I'm getting used to the backpacker life, today having my lunch (sandwiches and liverwurst) downtown Franz on a bench and tonight having instant-noodles as dinner. I like it :-)

My first balinese bang!

Kay here a quick update for as far as I can.
I did my two day tour the 4th and 5th. Was a lot of drivin. But saw a monkey forrest. Where monkeys actually used you as a tree. Which was funny because some girls didn't liked that very much. After that went to a crater lake. (yes was a actual volcano, but there not that rare, even some still active volcanos at present)And a lot of culture teachin from our guide. Then we went to a waterfall, where we were guided by children (for money off course). That night we had a lovely dinner, with as desert a balinese dancer. And I am still very fascinated by balinese dances, I might go for a day course. After the balinese dancing we went to the beach for a fire with a lot of games. Lot of sculling competitions. My first bang came from a italian in the honeymoon game. Where you have to bang baloons between each other in all sorts of kamasutra ways. And egg throwing and catching off course. After that a midnight swim. And some sleep, although my roommate snorred. So had maybe 2-3 hours sleep. The next morning for breakfast we went to a hot spring. For an hour bath, which was lovely. Then breakfast and some snorkelling on a sort of reef. With heaps of fish. Saw my first seasnake. And a crown of thorns who was lost. After that had a short snooze. Had a quick foto stop for a working large volcano on the way. Than raced to a woodcarving place, which wasn't spectaculair. A real balinese house, which is a big differece with western houses. Facinating. Then went to a silver factory where I fell in love with a huge silver necklace. Which was *slik* 6 miljon Rupiah. Eventually after a lot of bargaining and luck I paid 1.5 miljon Rupiah which is Eur$150,- or AUS$200,-. Still a lot but for a real silver handmade necklace a bargain. After that home.

Because I got sick that day I had a long night sleep. Today wasn't much better although a lot of people tried to help me out. Keep getting a lot of medication which eases it at least a bit. Stil feel very crappy. Just booked in another week at this hotel. Try to sick this out a bit first and then will go and see.

Love
nicky

Balinese diffrence...

Ok that headline sounds very promising. No idea if that what it is going to be. Lot to write/type. Going to do my best. But time is money. So will keep it a bit of a short story. Leaving Sydney wasn't very hard. Except for leaving all my family behind. Getting on the plane was fine. With no problems. I taped my bag up before gettin on the plane so nobody would be able to plant any drugs in it. Which made my bag look like a green mummy. Was quite overweigted, but the lovely lady let me through. (thank you australian airlines ;) On the plane 2 very dull movies. With missing my family and a bit of overthinking. (bit closer to home) Had horrible airplane food again :s Landing was fine. Customs was horribly organised. Took me over half an hour to get through. Then finding my bags back. My mummy wasn't any where to find. After half an hour searching and looking nothing... Starting to worry after Murf his customs storie... But suddenly my loyal mummy rolled over in my direction. And we happily left the building. No worries with claiming some woodstuff etc. Finding my trip to the hotel was a bit harder. Because of all the guys who try to convince me that they would bring me. (it's hard as a young lady here and all the attention ;) A lovely lady brought me to a small minivan. (which i gave the all known headbump, because I am to tall. Coming to the hotel it wasn't very luxurious, but a good price for the things you need. And i got my own room, with bathroom (don't think to much) and a pool in front of my door. First night was relax and hanging in the bar. Drank to much and ended up faling asleep early. Next day I didn't really dare to go out, because of all the stories. But a lovely lady gave me my first look around. Looked like something I can do. (gettin all the people of me who tried to sell me stuff.) But still that day i spended in the pool and the sun. That night a couple of people went out to dinner. And they invited me as well. So we went to this lovely restaurant. Had a gourgious dinner for EUR $4,- or AUS $6,- Went back to the bar. Did a bit of pub cruisin. And went nicely to bed. Today finally dared to go around in Kuta. Which went pretty wel. Still went to the pool and laying in the sun. Tomorrow i will go on a 2 day tour around bali. To see a bit more and get feeling for places. Tonight have an early night. Some food in the same restaurant. And a lovely Bintang. That is round about my story. Excluding the very cheap prices and the situations on the street. Just a quick story that I am ok and safe.

Love
Nicky