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Friday, April 30, 2010

Iron Man 2

Tonight Ben and I saw Iron Man 2. It was really interesting because it came out here in Australia before it came out in America, usually it is the other way around. It was a really good movie that we saw on a former IMAX screen so it was huge and we got the ticket for only $6.50. There was a ton of people there! We just barely got in the theatre. Luckily we bought our tickets in advance online and breezed thru the security check for the movie and actually got great seats. It was a really good movie and didn't disappoint. I dont have too much more to say tonight but tomorrow we will go into the city and take a city tour. Brisbane has been good to us so far.-Tyler

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Brisbane

Well my friend Ben and I finally made it to Brisbane after two tries haha. We paid for 1st class on the train from Sydney to Brisbane and just imagined that paying the extra money would make our 15 hour train ride so much better. We thought we would have free Internet, an awesome bed and maybe even a butler. You know just everything you imagine 1st class to be. I have never taken first class anything in my life so I was real excited.

Boy was I wrong lol. We paid extra money for slightly more legroom and a chair that reclines 40 degrees instead of 28 degrees. That was it. No bed,no Internet,no butler. The seat didn't even go all the way down into a sleeping position! I was extremely disappointed with it. But, we did finally make it to Brisbane in one piece so I cant complain too much.

Now we are staying with a good mate of mine until we get jobs and get on our feet. I do miss my friends in Sydney and certain things about it but now it is on to new and different things. Hopefully next time I write I will have more exciting things to talk about haha. Until next time, Your traveling Texan,Tyler

Monday, April 19, 2010

Sydney

So, I am back "home" away from home for a now. I checked back into Wakeup Hostel (my favourite hostel) for 1 week and I got 1 day for free! I am back readjusting to Australia and not traveling just relaxing and getting my bearings back. I still remember where most everything is but, in one week I will be off to Brisbane to live for a while. I am traveling with a friend up there for work and stuff. I am also gonna try and work on my certificate for teaching English while I am there and it will just be nice to move to a new place out of Sydney and somewhere warm!It will be good to catch up with all my friends here in Sydney again though. All that traveling different countries for 3 months really took it out of me.

On Monday I leave with a friend for Brisbane we will start there looking for work and see how it goes, if we dont like it then we will be moving further north following the warm sun!  You know sometimes, just sometimes I forget I am like a million miles away from home and it feels like home over here even though it isn't.

I think this is one of the shortest blogs I have ever written but I really have nothing else to say. -Tyler

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Home on the range....

Well I left Auckland today early in the AM ( I hate morning flights) and I managed to make it out of New Zealand and into Sydney with no issues. In fact that might have been the smoothest journey thru customs and security I have ever had, I really was in and out of there. So, I will be in Sydney for a week or so and then I move with a friend up north in Australia where its warm. We are thinking maybe Brisbane or Cairns. Once we get there we will get jobs hopefully ASAP and starting working and living in a new part of Australia until I decide what I want to do with myself next.

I really enjoyed my travels all thru Asia and New Zealand (especially Thailand!) but that is all I have to blog for now, I will keep yall posted :) -Tyler

Friday, April 16, 2010

In Christ Church

So I finally made it my last New Zealand destination, Christ Church "The Gateway to the Antarctic" It is pretty cold here but I just arrived so I haven't really had a chance to explore the city much. I wont be here for long as my flight back to Auckland is at 5:30am! Today I went across the longest 2 lane bridge in New Zealand and I have also driven across the longest single lane bridge in New Zealand. I have really seen and done alot with this Kiwi Experience. I have never taken a guided tour of an entire country before but it has been good! I really only had 2 driver guides, one for the north island and one for the south island and both were great! They were really funny and informative and have seen and done a lot and learned a lot.

I have done tubing in an underwater cave, I have hang glided and thrown myself into a canyon. I have seen some beautiful and amazing things here. Honestly out of the 11+ countries I have visited I think that New Zealand has the most natural beauty out of any country I have been too so far. All the people are nice here, when you do see people. There is only 4 million people between the 2 islands and there is 34 million sheep! The Kiwi Experience means your actual transportation costs are zero but, you do have to pay for your lodging every night plus food and activities so it can get expensive but it is a great way to experience the country and see things you wouldn't otherwise see. Well I guess that is it for now. Next time I write I will either be in Auckland or back in Australia. Yall take care,Tyler

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Getting ready to move on.....

Tomorrow I finally leave Queenstown for Christchurch. I have been here for a quite a while now but, its not really a bad town I have enjoyed it here. It will be nice to see something new though because I have seen and done pretty much all that Queenstown has to offer on my limited budget haha. My bus leaves early in the AM and it is about an 8 hour drive, I am sure there will be stops along the way to Christchuch. I am just relaxing and taking it easy on my last full day here in Queenstown. We finally have good weather again so that is nice! Well I really have nothing else to tell yall except that I will really really miss Ferg Burger alot! :( -Ty

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Queenstown again....

So I couldn't catch my Kiwi Bus out of Queenstown with most of the rest of my friends due to it being full. Which means I have 2 extra days here in Queenstown but, from what I have heard that is better than 4 whole days in Christchurch. I still do have some friends left here in Queenstown and I should still be able to make my flight back to Auckland on the 19th so I am not all that worried.

Queenstown is a nice city with lots to see and do and TONS of adventure stuff as you can tell but, all that is expensive so I have done most of my crazy stuff and now I am trying to save some money. It is slightly cold for my tastes here but I am making it. My hostel is pretty decent I just miss my roomies they all left today and we had all gotten pretty close to each other.

There is one other thing I feel that deserves a mention here in Queenstown. It is a local burger joint called Ferg Burger. Some of my illustrious local readers may have heard of this place. It is basically McDonald's on steroids. The lines are almost always out the door and sometimes even around the block! They are open 21 hours a day and located directly across the street from my hostel. Perfect for the average backpacker. They are kinda expensive but the quality of the burger is totally worth the price! I can eat literally just one burger and be full and not need any other food for quite a while. I have had quite a few ferg burgers myself as they have chicken,beef,lamb,venison and vegetarian varieties. I personally know of someone who has had a Ferg Burger a day everyday he has been in Queenstown. I also know a girl who had 2 in a 12 hour period! They are just that good. This place is amazing but unfortunately the owner ( a millionaire by now for sure) refuses to franchise so once I leave Queenstown I wont have another one unless I come back. That being said, he has managed to put every other burger joint in Queenstown out of business and his quality is outstanding!

I really dont have much to add today its gonna be a short blog I think. Be sure to check out my pictures and videos on Facebook. Talk at yall later,Ty

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Soar high above the clouds.....

Well yesterday I hang glided 3000ft off a mountain above Queenstown. The view was AMAZING and the ride was so gentle and relaxing. But, he did make it crazy for a while which of course I loved. So basically I got harnessed in side by side next to the pilot and we picked up the glider and got to the top of the hill and he said ONE,TWO,THREE,RUN! So we both ran as fast as we could down the hill and before you knew it the glider had picked us up 3000 ft in the air! So there I was hang gliding suspended above the trees and mountains just gliding along.

So we were swirling downward and he asked me if I wanna see something crazy. So I say sure. Then he says "lets go look at the trees" I didn't know he meant it quite so literally! He stalled out our glider and rocketed us down towards the trees and right close to a mountain and it was so much fun! Then we gained altitude again and flew some more just soaring all over. Eventually we rocketed quickly down towards the ground and came in  for a belly landing. It all in all lasted about 20 minutes but it was totally worth it!

Today I will be taking a gondola ride up a mountain for a view of Queenstown. The Gondola ride was pretty cool but, it cost 23 dollars one way just to get up there! So my mate and I we decided to walk up the mountain instead. It took us 45 minutes to get up there and it was HARD about half way up I was really regretting my decision to walk the mountain. But, we finally made it and the view was totally amazing. Worth the walk for sure. I will put some pictures on facebook of it. Then after a while we were able to take the gondola  back down the hill for free so all was well in the world. I guess I am just trying to maximize my 10 days left here in NZ. I have a few days left here in Queenstown then I am off to Christchurch for a bit then I go to fly to Sydney out of Auckland.  Its all be good and I have enjoyed it but soon I will be off back to Oz. I am still feeling my rush from the canyon swing though!

Talk at yall later,Ty

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Breaking up is hard to do....

Today our "family" had a "break up" see I have been traveling for the past 2 weeks or so with the same core group of people on the Kiwi Experience Bus and I have been rooming with my mate Scott (who I met in Thailand) and our new friends, Amy,Mr Israel,Inge,Michael and Dave. Well Today All of them left to go their separate ways except Amy,Inge and I. I will see most of them again in Australia in about 2 weeks actually but, even so after staying with people and hanging out with them all the time for 2 weeks It is always hard to leave each other.

On a happier note, today I hang glide off a mountain outside of Queenstown so I can see an overhead view of the whole city! I am pretty excited about that for sure. After doing my Canyon Swing (check my video on facebook) I am still pretty pumped and full of excitement for wild stuff but this will be my last crazy thing for a while because I need to buckle down and start getting ready to go back to Oz and back to work!

I did forget to mention in my last blog entry that before we got into Queenstown we stopped on the bus at  "Puzzle World" it was a HUGE outdoor maze you had to make your way thru along with many puzzles inside the building and a crazy optical illusion room that made you really dizzy and feel crazy! There was another room where when you looked in from the outside it looked normal but when you went inside it was totally slanted! and when you viewed the room from the outside (on a video monitor) the people in the room looked like giants or midgets depending on what part of the room they were in! There was tons and tons of cool laser pictures and optical illusions. It was a neat place! There was also a challenge issued  by the owner to find a certain item within 100 meters of a certain spot and if you found it you got 100,000 dollars! 7 people paid the 1000 dollar entry fee to try and all have failed since 1994! ( the entry fee actually goes to charity or so they say) I really did enjoy that place but I have always been horrible with puzzles and stuff I guess my brain is just hard wired differently because all I remember is useless movie trivia haha

Talk at ya later,Ty

Swinggggggggggg!!!!!!

Well since I have made it into Queenstown aka Adventure Capital of the World I have done a lot! We arrived and unpacked our stuff and got settled in. I am here for a week so that means I can finally actually properly unpack. I have been sharing a room with my mate Scott from England who I met in Thailand, another girl Amy from England, along with a girl Inge from Holland and a guy from Israel named Sahar although we just call him "Mr Israel". We are quite the international bunch but we have become fast friends all of us and I dont have to worry about any of my stuff being stolen in the room. I quite like all my new friends and we have had some good nights together.

After we got settled in it was time for Scott and I to go do our canyon swing. I will try and explain what this is. Basically they harness you up 109 meters above the ground. That is roughly about 350 feet up or about how tall the Sydney Harbour Bridge is in Australia. So you are standing there and you have to choose how you want to jump off. But it isn't that easy, the guides or instructors are extremely sadistic and they really enjoy making you squirm.

So I watched  a few people go off and then it was my turn. Somehow I let them convince me to go off this platform backwards! So I get to the edge and look up and they give me a push which freaks me out already! Now I am harnessed in at this point but I am still 350 feet above the ground! So I turn around and they tell me to back out towards the edge. So slowly I start to back out towards the edge and they grab my harness and hold on. Then They tell me to lean back slowly I am terrified at this point but then I start to lean back over the edge and just as I am about to go they pull me back in! my heart is about to explode and I just wanna go!

Finally finally they let me go and just as I start to fall 65 meters straight down and JUST as they let me go they said "Oh no we forgot to clip something! of course that freaked me out even more!!! But in the end it was all just a joke and I was fine as I fell straight down and then arched in a big long swinging motion for quite a while until I finally stopped and they wenched me back up. I actually loved it so much that I did a second canyon swing for 39 dollars only! I really ended up loving it, It was awesome!

Well tomorrow I hang glide that should be great! Then I can say I have Sky Dived,canyon swinged,bungee jumped,and hang glided. Quite a ride its all been.... I have a video of my canyon swing on facebook and youtube and I am putting my photos on facebook too. Do go check them out :)

Talk at yall later,Ty

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Brrrrrrrrrrr!

So I was in Franz Joseph where I did my glacier walk and it was so cold! But it was amazing for real, I loved everything about it except for the cold of course. I got some great pictures which I will upload to facebook soon. But words and pictures just dont do it justice, I cant even describe how pure and beautiful and amazing it was. I saw things that not many people get to see in a lifetime and I even got to drink pure glacier water!

When I first signed up for this it sounded expensive but it was worth every penny and it wasn't just a stroll thru the glacier as I thought. We actually did some real climbing with ropes and had crampons and climbed into ice caves and thru crevices but the views just made it all worth it. By the end of the day I was soaked and cold and tired but, I did pay for a glacier hot pool afterwards and it was the perfect cap off to a great day! It was a glacier fed pool that they heated to the perfect degree of hotness and you could stay in there as long as you wanted!

I also failed to mention something really interesting that we saw outside of Franz Joseph was "The Bushman's Museum" it was a museum started by a guy who first created "deer capture" in the 1970's. See, back in the 1800's and early 1900's they released deer into New Zealand just for sport hunting and really no other reason but by the 1950's and 60's the deer were so overpopulated they were killing a lot of the native trees and going into people's houses and stuff. So they started culling the deer and just killing them all. That was fairly successful but still not enough. So, they started using helicopters to hunt and kill deer and that was so successful that they ended up almost wiping out all of the deer totally.

Finally the govt realised that they should save some of the deer instead of killing them all so they used the helicopter to go and find deer and literally jump from the helicopter onto the deer and capture them it was pretty wild! Then this guy made a "net gun" system where he could shoot a net onto the deer and bring it down for capture. So eventually they had enough deer to actually start farming them for meat. So now there is over 35 "deer farms" in New Zealand where they just breed deer to kill for venison. The exports total over 260 million dollars a year! It is odd seeing deer everywhere in pastures/paddocks.

It was an interesting museum but, this guy who owned it he was really quite "politically incorrect" in a way it was refreshing to see someone who really didn't care what others thought about him and his views but, he did managed to offend a lot of people because he had complaint letters that he posted all over the walls along with his replies to the letters! He was quite a character. All in all I did enjoy the museum though. I am one day away from Queenstown so I will write more there after all my crazy canyon swing and adventure stuff!

Yall take care,Tyler

Saturday, April 03, 2010

On and on we go....

Well I left yall in Nelson and after spending 2 days in Nelson I made it to West Port and spent a night there. There really wasn't much in West Port at all but our bus drivers organized a 3 legged pub crawl. So I was chained to a total stranger and we had to walk to 3 different pubs together but, she turned out to be a pretty cool girl. Luck for me her boyfriend didn't mind me being chained to her! Really there isn't much else to tell about West Port a lot of these towns are just spit dots on the map and I think the Kiwi Experience Bus Tour really keeps them alive. It is really neat to see all the different parts of the country though and to places I would never go.

After we left West Port we made it to Lake Manapua and "The Poo Pub" our hostel was run by New Zealand's oldest pub owner. He is an 84 year old man named Les and amazingly day after day he puts up with a rowdy group of 50+ backpackers and he still enjoys it! We had a pub night there as well but it was a costume party. The only rule was that everyone had to dress up and the only place we had to shop was the 2 dollar shop and a resale charity store so needless to say the costume's were very interesting haha! I managed to buy an old lady's night/dressing gown and a white glove a la Michael Jackson along with a hat my mate bought me made for babies! So I was quite the sight lol. But we all had a good time not to mention an amazing home cooked steak meal from Les for only 10 dollars which is an amazing bargain here in New Zealand!

Currently I am in Franz Joseph a really really cool town in southern New Zealand with a real glacier! I paid for a full day glacier walk along with most of my bus it was expensive but, how many times in your life do you get to walk all over a real glacier! I guess that is all for now. We will be here for another day then getting closer and closer to Queenstown the adventure capital of the world! :)

Bye for now yall,Ty