above an underground lake under a northern sky

[Jacky]

So...Queenstown was fantastic, I'd love to move there. Every other store is a ski shop, I have some beautiful pictures on myspace since I don't want to clutter this site's front page anymore with my pictures/face. But, seriously, pictures cannot possibly capture how beautiful of a country New Zealand is. Its fresh and clean and remote.

The morning after....my last blog

I got up around 5am and seeing as the hostel had put me in a room again with 5 guys, I decided it would be a good idea to dry my hair somewhere else, and yet the bathroom had no outlets.. So I find one of the hostel workers in the hallway cleaning the trash and ask him where I can plug my hairdryer in. He leads me to the laundry room.. leaves and returns with a chair, and tells me to sit down and that he will blow dry my hair for me. He then proceeds to ask if I want it flipped or straight. Fantastic, I find the most flamboyant kiwi ex hair dresser hostel worker at 5am who wants to do my hair for me. I knew it was going to be a good day from that point on. And he did a good job too.

So then I walk to where my coach is leaving to drive the 4 hours to the Milford Sound. I tried to sleep, but I'm not so good at sleeping sitting up, so i just watched the sun rise on my left and the moon set on my right, pretty cool site to see, when The Remarkables (apparently my mac says I can't spell that word), but anyways, its pretty when The Remarkables are your backdrop.

We get to the Milford Sound and it's a foggy cold wet misty day, but it was still good. I never saw Fiords before, and for the past few years its always been my dream to make it to Alaska, so seeing the ones in NZ was amazing.

When I returned to my hostel I found a new guy in the room. So I say hi and he starts acting kind of odd.. which at first I gave him the benefit of the doubt of just being drunk as he was drinking when I came in. Except... every time I would put something in my bag or on my bed, he would turn around and say "oh is that your bed? I'm sorry" , but it wasn't that he just did that once, he did it multiple times "oh is that your stuff? sorry", turn around, face me again and ask the same question. So at this point I'm thinking, ok so he's a bit eccentric, that's ok, I like all kinds of people.. EXCEPT...

We were making polite casual conversation and I mentioned where I go to school and what my major is etc.. and he tells me what his is, nothing out of the ordinary..EXCEPT!

He tells me that he has another job he is studying..he then proceeds to show me these papers he downloaded off the internet about how to train to become an assassin. I'm being serious here, I could not make this up. Then he starts saying its not bad because its for profit, which is even worse..

So I honestly think that he was doing this to scare people into leaving the room so he wouldn't have to share it.. but I didn't want to be one of the people he practiced on, so it took me about 5 minutes after that to say I was going to the bathroom and get the people at the front desk to check me into an all girls room.

Funny thing is, later at the bar next door (I was looking for some food), I run into one of the guys who was in the room the previous night who went bungy jumping, and he stopped me and whispers "how freaky is that new guy that moved in? he's scary as shit" .


and that was the end of that interesting day.

the next day I flew back to Auckland and spent the night online and walking uphill to get some mexican take out. Chimichanga.

Then I caught an early bus to Waitomo where I abseiled 100 meters. The trip I did has a very tourist friendly and aptly named Lost World & Haggas Honking Holes. The 100 meter (330 feet) took about 20 minutes. It wasn't scary at all actually, I could have dangled there all day suspended in the middle of a crevice just enjoying the fresh air.

But Hagga's Honking Holes was better. And this is a side note, but I think its really awesome that most of the land in New Zealand is still owned by the Maori (native) people.

But continuing this chapter of a blog that I'm enjoying posting in this little speck of the internet universe (I don't really post so that people read, its nice when you do, I really like when people are interested in things I write, but its more of writing it down so it feels more tangible, so it won't fade with my memory)...

I ended up abseiling down three underground waterfalls, squeezing through holes, crawling on my hands and knees in pitch black, and climbing a few very high natural rock walls.

When we came out of the cave it was night time. I spent about 7 hours of the daylight in a cave 100 some meters below the surface.

Then I went back to another hostel, this time a far less commercial one than the Base hostels I had been staying in. It was nice, the receptionist had left for the one pub in town before I had arrived but didn't care if I took some food for dinner and left money. I left money don't worry I do in fact have a conscience. The rooms had no locks on them, but there were only about 5 rooms, and the nice thing about most backpackers is that they don't steal like people are led to believe. Most of them have enough of their own stuff to carry on their backs for 6 + months, let alone want your stuff.

But my roommates had borrowed the heaters which was nice because our room was nice and toasty for the night.

The next day it rained and the receptionist found me an umbrella because I had about a 20 minute walk into town to see the Angora Bunny Rabbits and Glowworm Cave.

The bunnies were cute and fluffy.

The Glowworm cave was glowwy. But if you want a more intelligent version, I could say we did a small dry tour, and went through a famous Cathedral where a lot of musicians like to perform because of its perfect acoustics. The limestone walls and shape make it ideal. Apparently Justin Timberlake had been there a week or so before me and sung in it. Pssht, I think we all did a pretty good rendition of happy birthday for one of the other guests.

So then we went on the boat to see the Glowworms, but alas, all of the rain had caused the cave to flood which means we could only tour one section of the cave. It was lovely nonetheless, and now I have a reason to return.

Then I almost missed my van to Rotorua but the gift shop lady drove me back to my hostel so I wouldn't. I arrived in Rotorua about 3 hours later at my next hostel, got some food, talked to my new roommates who had won their trip through school, and went to sleep.

The next day I went to see Wai-O Tapu Ther pmal Reserve with one of my room mates, Racheli. Very nice girl. At first she kind of came off as annoying, but she did make the day better. I needed to hangout with someone, even if I didn't know them, before I got more lost in my travel, since I was traveling by myself. We took a lot of pictures, my favorite of which is by the Devil's Bathe, a pond with lime green water from the sulfur and other chemicals. And we got owned by the steam at the Champagne Pool.

Then I went to the Hells Gate Spa for my much anticipated spa cherry popping event. Its lame of me, but I get kind of nervous/shy when I'm in situations like going to a spa or in a store where I know I can't afford a sock. I don't know, I guess I just feel like I don't belong there or something..

but anyways, I walked around their thermal park, which had a mud volcano, the largest HOT waterfall in the southern hemisphere, and a bubbling mud pit that has temperatures up to 145 Celsius!

I didn't realize I could also try some wood carving, but I don't think I would have been able to get that through U.S. customs anyways.

So then I went in the mud bath. The place is really honestly meant for couples, but the way I see it, and I think about this when I go out to dinner and eat in the restaurant.. if I don't do something because I have to do it alone, then I'll end up not doing anything at all, so sitting alone at my table on the Sydney dinner cruise, I still can say I did it. So

I did it. I had my private mud bath, which was interesting, you go and sit in this bath tub and all the mud is on the bottom and you have to scrape it with your hands and rub it all over yourself.. but then after 20 minutes its time to get out and you are required to take a cold shower.

And I mean cold.. it was really funny.. I get up and go to the dreaded cold shower and turn it on, and everyone outside must have laughed because I instinctively give out a high pitched scream of ecstasy for my love of ice cold water. And so I quickly turn the shower off only to find I didn't wash all of the mud off and had to turn it back on!

Luckily after that I was able to change back into my bathing suit and go in the mineral bath, which was nicely heated. After a while though I managed to get really dizzy and had to get out and get some water. Then I got a Maori full body massage.

I don't really know the etiquette of a spa so I knew I was going to end up embarrassing myself at some point, which I did, I thought the masseuse said flip over, when she really was just saying she would tell me when to flip over, so I did and almost flashed her which led to a very awkward moment.

But after that it was fine , and I went back to my hostel, then got a very early bus ride back to the Airport.

Where my flight was delayed for another 5 hours because Quanta's is having a mechanical strike, honestly if you plan on traveling in and out of Australia via Quantas any time soon, try and see if you can rebook with Air New Zealand, because the Q25, and I feel really sorry for you if this is your flight number, that plane has been in service and also cancelled multiple times with in the past month... So of course I start crying because this is the second time in one week my flight was delayed and I needed to get home for my interview with ABKCO and I was tired and all I want to be home blahblah..

We leave and make it to LAX 10 minutes after my connecting flight from Continental had left, so, I had to wait another 5 hours in LAX waiting for the next flight to Newark.

And then I got home. Had my interview the following day, half asleep, and I just know I didn't get picked because at that point my mind was somewhere in the pacific ocean, but I think CMJ liked me, and find out my parents lost the number for Billboard Mag who called asking for an interview. But its ok, I managed to get it from my Co-Op advisor.

and I've just been sort of a hermit for the past week, trying to change my sleep schedule and figure out what I am going to do with the next year of my life.

It was a good year. I met some great people. I hope I get to see you all again sometime.