Finishing up South Island Trip

Living out of a backpack, jumping hostel to hostel, cramming in as much touristy stuff as possible, spending many hours everyday on a bus... I wouldn't have it any other way! I finished up traveling around the south island on Saturday the 24th and am now back in Palmerston North for a week or so before heading back to Rotorua for some more kick ass mountain biking. Here are some pics from the last few days of my backpacking fun.

Those mountains in the back ground were in some shots of Lord of the Rings

Havin a sweet time kayaking in Lake Tekapo

Sarah and I splashing around

You wish you were this "really really really incredibly good looking"

Chillin outside the library in Dunedin. Yeah, I'm that cool

Special

Always eating

Funky corn dog in Christchurch

The Boulders

On the road to Lake Tekapo, the magic bus (the bus company I'm traveling with) stopped at The Boulders. These amazing round rocks are just dropped right in the middle of a beach. No one knows how they got there, maybe it was aliens. I'm sure if I had just read the signs it would have told me where they came from, but its more fun to pretend its something odd and mysterious.

They were scattered all over the beach

I almost picked that one up, but not quite

Got that one off the ground just a bit


I got hungry after all that boulder lifting and had a hefty snack of kelp

What can I say... I like climbing on things :-)

Rock Hoppin

I Owned the Worlds Steepest Street!

Well, maybe I didn't "own" it, but I totally showed it whats up! I was so excited to get the chance to run up the steepest street in the world! Check it out...

The Worlds Steepest Street?!? I bet I can run up that!

That's nothing. Watch this!

It may not look like much from here, but when you get about 3/4 of the way up, its like running up 3 steps on a staircase each foot step! It hurt so good. I would love to do repeats up that!

Everybody else was taking this picture, so we thought we should too

That's no optical illusion

It just seemed like so much fun at the time!

(sorry I couldn't get the video to turn)

Food Food Food

On one of our days or travel we decided to photograph everything I ate. It ended up be a bit more that I would have thought.

Pizza for breakfast

Soup and a roll for lunch. Carrot cake for dessert

Chocolate for a mid day snack

Eggs, hash browns, and baked beans for second breakfast

Yogurt for a snack

Then Mexican for dinner

That pepper in my beer gave it a bit of a kick

And just for fun (on another night) we went to Ferdburger and scarfed down some MASSIVE burgers and onion rings. Yummy!

Milford Sound

Sarah, Paul, Ali, Keira, and I hopped on a bus from Queenstown to Milford Sound to see what all the fuss was about. And boy o boy was it worth it! The pictures definitely don't do it justice, but you'll at least get a glimpse of the massivenessousity and gorgousnisty of it all (Bushism's).

Getting soaked under a waterfall

The views were immense

A pack of dolphins decided to give us a show and swim next to the boat for a bit

On our drive back to Queenstown the bus was stopped by a massive herd of sheep. There had to be nearly a 1000 of them!

There was also a bit of celebration on the bus for one other American and myself on January 21st (January 20th back in the States). We were slightly less embarrassed to call ourselves Americans now that we no longer have a monkey running the country. We are now hopeful, instead of fearful, of the future of our country and its affects on the world.

Traveling the South Island

Here are some pictures from my travels around the South Island of New Zealand.

Sarah and me

These currency exchange rates had me laughing out loud

Party time! They tasted like Listerine, but with out the alcohol burn....wtf!?!

At the Noah's Ark hostel, we stayed in the Sheep Room.



The pancake rocks were mesmerizing

Big fat seal taking a nap as I snapped a few photos

Kiwis, kiwis, kiwis

Everybody and their mom says "Sweet As" down here

Hey! That's me!

Lots of time spent on a bus seeing the country side

A Wicked MTB Race! (Better Late Than Never)

I raced the N-Duro 45k mountain bike race on Sunday the 11th. To say it was a gnarly race wouldn't even come close to doing it justice. Wicked fast pace from the get go, leg burning grassy hills, wildly overgrown single track sections, a never ending hill, sloppy muddy down hill that had me over the bars multiple times, and winding trails that left my head spinning. Oh what fun!

Always concerned with post race recovery, Cabin and I downed a package of chocolate fish on the car ride back home.

What an Adventure!

I've decided to alter my plans from the standard training regiment. I'll be traveling the south island of New Zealand with my new English friends Sarah, Paul and Allie for the next couple of weeks. I've grabbed my back pack and hopped on a bus, then the ferry, then the bus again to end up in Nelson for my first night of the inprompt to trip.






Abel Tasmen park was on the agenda for the next day of the trip. Sarah, Paul and I set out for what ended up being a breath taking hike over lush hills, to beautiful sandy beaches, and filled with loads of fun.


The trip started with a boat ride, then the hike, a swim, more hiking with lots of cookie breaks.

3...2...1... LUGE!

Sarah and I hopped on the bus to head out the local luge hill. I did my best to embarrass her on the ride and we took it upon ourselves to be total goobers. What fun!



We caught some sick air and clocked a few wicked times as we ripped down the luge track. I came close to flipping the sled on several occasions.

What a great view

WTF?!? Rocky Road flavored milk!


Being my usual self

Pretty bird, pretty bird

Does anyone else get the urge to jump on big metal statues just for the hell of it?