Barrington Tops

Went on a lovely ;) trip with Jackie to Barrington tops (was my Christmas present from her). Had a great time. On the way up there we picked up a whole heap of wine (Brokenwood), cheese and beer (Bluetongue) from the hunter valley. Then up there we went horse back riding, bushwalking, tennising and did a whole lot of swimming, was hot! On the second night we scared the crap out of ourselves by watching the blairwitch project and then going on a little midnight bush walk, I had to throw away that pair of boxers...



On the way back we came across this abandoned gold mine that was in the middle of a rainforest. It was seriously like something out of Indiana Jones. It was very creepy, we had to jump a fence to get in there and we were wandering around expecting to stumble across some drug runners or some dead bodies. We found out later that you can book tours through this old dude called "Goldie" who is getting really slack. He actually takes you down the gold mine, I'd imagine it would be pretty damn scary!

Here are some pics of the whole ordeal.

Kris Kringle

Had a Kris Kringle party at the Hat. The plan was that everyone draws a number, and people pic a present from the pile in order from the lowest to highest number. Sounds simple, but there was a catch! If you don't like your present, you can steal a present from someone else that has a lower number than you. So, where it would seem at first that having the lowest number is the best because you get first pic, it's actually the worst because if anyone else wants your present they can take it. So the highest number gets the pick of the lot.

I got the number 7, I started out with a poker set and a bottle of bourbon, I ended up with some porn (that Noel seemed to like). I would have prefered the poker set :(

Chino caught some pics of the whole occasion.

Milford Sound

Went kayaking in milford sound today. Got decked out in some cool kayaking gear which included this cool 'skirt' that supposedly keeps the water out of your kayak.



As expected the scenery was amazing and everything seemed a lot closer than it actually was because of the sheer size of everything. As many other guides in NZ had done earlier our guide on this trip asked us to estimate distances to various objects. A waterfall that appeared to be 2 kms away was apparently 7 kms. We made this our target for the day and made it about half way. Then we all held on to one another and hoisted up a make shift sail which took us most of the way back, was actually pretty cool. Apparently they're the only kayaking company in the world (that they know of anyway) that does this sailing thing, they invented the method themselves, quite clever...

Milford Sound pics

River Surfing

Went river surfing today in shotover river again (pictured in previous post). Was just Daniel and myself this time, we seem to be the only two "well hard" ones. This involved riding a body board down the rapids. Was great fun! I think it was definitely better than white water rafting because you spend the whole time right in the water! The coolest part had to be surfing the stationary waves. Basically in the rapids you find these waves that form backwards as the water flows down the river. So if you ride down the river backwards and kick REALLY hard you can get stuck in this stationary wave. AWESOME DUDE!

Shotover River

IMGP0031
Originally uploaded by aullman.

Todays adventures involved this river in Queenstown. Went on a combo adventure which was made up of a Jet Boat ride, then a helicopter ride to the top of the river and then a white water rapids ride back down to the bottom.


All of the above were pretty amazing! The jet boat ride involved lots of spinning around and screaming past those sharp rocks at 80 km/h barely missing. Was great fun and got pretty wet.


That was followed by a helicopter ride which I was a bit disapointed in because apparently there are two pilots, one called "crazy Jim" who is a vietnam vet who still thinks he's there sometimes. Unfortunately we got "boring Keith" who talked in a monotone voice and didn't leave me feeling sick.


White water rafting was pretty fun, our guide was this annoying NZ sheep farmer girl who we could barely understand and who was constantly freaking out about falling in the water (bit ironic). Her fear rubbed off a bit and made it a bit more thrilling, but the only time anyone fell out was when we jumped out voluntarily at the "swimable rapids".

All in all was a great day! Have a few happy snaps that I took with a waterproof camera although I'm anticipating that most of them will be of my finger. I'll put them up later...

Bungy

Went bungy jumping and luging (lugeing? on a luge?). Yeah was a great day in Queenstown, jumped from "The Ledge" which was 47m of pure AWESOMENESS! I'm well hard now!

• Pics of my BRAVERY


• Video of my MANLINESS


• Video of me "acting" scared before I jumped.
  

The Luge basically involved driving down a hill on a little buggy thing that is kind of a cross between a go-cart, a bicycle and a sleigh. We were all racing down the hill like mad men, getting propped up on 2 wheels around corners and even getting a little air over bumps. Was actually great fun, we went 5 times. I won every time of course, 'cause I'm AWESOME! (<- what a dick).

Franz Josef Glacier

Arrived in NZ yesterday afternoon, yay! Am pumped and ready for a riveting adventure holiday! I even bought a $425 Pentax Optio S6 Digital Camera (which I totally can't afford! But just checked on Staticice and I got a good price, cheapest on there is $445, better hope so being duty free) to capture all the moments. So prepare yourselves for some amazing pics coming up soon.

Spent all yesterday driving to Franz Josef Glacier which is apparently the WORLDS STEEPEST commercially climbed glacer and one of only 3 glaciers that meet rainforest. That's right, I climbed it! I have a certificate and everything. Got a few happy snaps of me conquering it like the legend that I am as well ;)

Yeah, it was pretty spectacular, really steep and suprisingly blue and not all that cold! Had to get decked out in stinky sweaty climbing gear but you get over that pretty quickly. I'll throw some pics up of me pimped out in my glacier gear once I have them.


Chino has put a few pics up of the NZ holiday, there are some Franz Joseph Glacier ones up there, unlike some (idiot!) he didn't forget to bring the battery for his camera.

Noel also has some pics up.

jamiroquai

jamiroquai
Originally uploaded by aullman.

Chino is claiming that this is the greatest concert this week and I'm inclined to agree with him.

It was an outdoor concert with beer flowing and much dancing. Loads of people in Centennial Park and there was a great atmosphere. Almost worth missing a day in NZ for.




Here are some pics.

I just found some other dudes pics of the jamiroquai concert on flickr that are much better than mine, he got much closer.

FooFightersTicket

FooFightersTicket
Originally uploaded by aullman.

Foo Fighters were great! I spent the whole time wishing I was in the general admission section though. Our seats were really crap, stuck up the back on the side so we were looking from the wrong perspective and the sound wasn't as good. People were still into it even up the back, standing up dancing, singing, shouting etc. But yeah, general admission was definitely the way to go, Dave Grohl is amazing!

They did divide general admission up into two sections, the front was definitely the place to be although sections of it degenerated into a mosh pit with jumping and the occasional punch, looked a bit scary (well for girls anyway, not scary for men like me, with massive guns, the kind that built the eiffel tower from steal and brawn!).