Tasmania, Rugby, Footy Pictures

The Haka

Tasmania, and some sports.

I spent a glorious weekend seeing as much of Tasmania as I could in three days. Me and my usual band of cronies, Kev, Colleen, and Zsoka, were joined by an Australian, Georgie, and a German living in Finland, Kaarina. We flew into Hobart Friday morning, picked up our rental car, and began driving Northwest towards the more rainforesty (that's a word) section of the island. On the way, we stopped at a gigantic hydro-electric dam in Tarraleah. Our next stop was a small hike to a large waterfall, Nelson Falls. Bounding across the rocks, I leapt to the foot of the waterfall, and stepped in the ice cold water. It was wonderful. This area of Tasmania really reminded me of the South Island of New Zealand. Many people in Australia had told me that there was no need to go to Tasmania if I had already been to New Zealand. Lucky for me, I ignored them. After the hike, we made our way to a town called Queenstown (there everywhere) where we had to drive down a precarious winding road to reach the town. Stocking up on food, we continued Northwesterly, until we arrived at our camp site in Cradle Valley. Unfortunately, it was dark and pouring rain when we arrived at the campsite. So, instead of getting out of the car and setting up camp, we just slept in the van. The next morning, it was still raining, but we made our way to Cradle Mountain. We did a nice two hour hike in the wind and rain around Dove Lake. After the hike we began driving east across the northern region of Tasmania towards Launceston, the second largest city in Tasmania. We then continued on the way to the Eastern coast of the island and again slept in our van, this time at Coles Bay. On Sunday, we woke up and made our way down the Eastern Coast to Wineglass Bay. It was a beautiful hike, and culminated at the beautiful Wineglass Bay. A pristine white beach, surrounded by mountains, hugging crystal clear blue water. Unfortunately, my friend Colleen sprained her ankle on the hike down to the beach. She gutted it out though, and made it to the end. After the great hike, we made our way down to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park in Port Arthur. Sadly, the Tasmanian Devil is going extinct in the wild due to a mouth cancer that is spreading rapidly through their population. Since they are very aggressive (see videos posted), they bite each other in the face, therefore passing on the virus. Since the late 90s, scientists estimate that the population of Tasmanian devils have declined by 20 to 50 percent. At conservation centers like the one at Port Arthur, they are trying to slowly breed the seven healthy Tasmanian Devils they have. It was a lot of fun seeing the Tasmanian Devils in action, but also sad because it reminded us that they might be extinct in the wild within ten years. That night, we did a ghost tour through Port Arthur. Port Arthur, a former convict colony and home to a large prison, was the scene of the worst mass murder event in post-colonial history. The ghost tour was a lot of fun. I was tasked to hold the lantern at the end of group and proceeded be "that guy," you know, the guy who tries to scare his friends on a ghost tour. That night, we drove back to Hobart. The next morning, Kev and I flew back to Melbourne on Anzac Day. The next couple of weeks have been spent finishing up the semester, and going to sporting events. I was lucky enough to got a Rugby League match between Australia and New Zealand. I have learned recently that there are two different types of Rugby, Rugby Union and Rugby League. Rugby Union is what they play at the Rugby World Cup and is the more popular version of the sport worldwide. Rugby League is played predominantly in Australia, New Zealand, England, and France. The famous "All Black" from New Zealand are therefore a Rugby Union team. I did however get to see the New Zealand Kiwis perform the Hakka before the match. It was fantastic. Australia won, but other than the haka, I was bored by the match. I then went to an Australian Rules Football match, otherwise known as footy, between the two teams at the top of the standings. Footy is a sport played predominantly in Victoria, but every major city, other than Darwin, has a team in the 16 team premier league. I got to see the Geelong Cats, winners of two of two of the three last championships, against the Collingwood Magpies, the team at the top of the standings. Geelong pulled away from the Magpies in the third period and ended up winning by thirty. It was a fantastic atmosphere at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with around 85,000 screaming fans in attendance. I then was lucky to see Australia play there last friendly in Australia before the World Cup. They were playing their rivals, New Zealand, ironically nicknamed, the "All Whites." It was a sloppy game full of dirty tackles, but did end with Australia scoring the winning goal 3 minutes and 13 seconds into injury time of the second half. To compare the popularity of the sports, there were about 55,000 fans at the soccer match. My classes ended last week, but I have three papers to write before I will feel fully free. In interesting Australian News, Israel Folau, one of thee best Rugby League players in the world, is strongly considering signing with one of the two expansion teams entering the AFL (Australian Football League) next year. This is the Australian equivalent of Michael Jordan leaving the Bulls to play baseball. Also, the Labour government is attempting to implement a 40% super tax on the mining industry in Australia. They argue that the mining industry is getting rich off minerals that belong to all Australians and that some of the profits should be going towards social welfare programs. The Liberal Party argues that the mining industry is Australia's most successful industry, and that this super tax will cripple the industry that helped Australia avoid (thus far) the global recession. Already, the mining industry is saying they have had to halt some project because of the proposed tax. This could end up being the linchpin issue in the national election in November. Anyway, I have exactly a month left in this amazing country. One more great trip to the Great Barrier Reef left, and of course, my goodbyes to Melbourne. Back in New York City June 27.

2 Tasmania videos

Outback Pictures Part #2

Outback Adventures Part #2

Hey Everyone,

We left in the morning from Hawker to do our hike in Flinders Range. The day started off beautifully, but unfortunately, we got hit with heavy rain halfway up the mountain. Soaking wet and cold, we took quick pictures at the top and hurried down. We than began our drive to Quorn, the second town in Flinders Range we planned on camping. Unfortunately, because of the rain, we scrapped that idea and decided to stay in a hostel in Port Augusta, a nearby town. This hostel called itself the Flinders Hotel, and actually turned out to be quite a bit nicer than any hostel I had stayed in whether in Europe or Australia. The next morning was an especially long drive through the outback to the opal capital of the world, Coober Pedy. On the way, we stopped at a Salt Lake that definitely reminded me of the Dead Sea. When we arrived in Coober Peddy, we found out that there was an aboriginal reservation right near by. This was my first time in Australia coming into contact with indigenous Australians. Coober Pedy is a fascinating town because it has a sizable population living underground. In fact, the hostel we stayed at was underground. We also visited an underground Orthodox church that was very interesting. I also met a very friendly Belgian student who was doing a documentary for his university on the underground homes in Coober Pedy. He took a group of us up to the highest point in the town and pointed out where the Aboriginal reservation was located. The next morning we took a tour of an opal mine and of a luxurious underground home. The mine was very interesting, there was a small piece of opal in the rock with a sign next to it indicating that it was worth about 40,000 dollars. The home was beautiful and had a wine cellar and a pool. The woman who had originally owned it had it built when she first moved to Coober Peddy back in the 1970's. We than made our way even deeper in to the outback towards Uluru (the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock). The southern outback is incredibly flat with lots of brown shrubs and bushes. It stretches on for miles and miles west until you hit the mines of Western Australia. There were also stretches of highway where there was no one living within 400 miles of where we were. Over the horizon, a large landmass appeared. It was red and flat and seemed to be perfectly symmetrical. We got excited thinking that it was Uluru, but it turned out that we made the same mistake that thousands of other tourists make, it was Mt. Cook. When I read in the tour guide that Mt. Cook is three times the size of Uluru, I began to feel that I would be underwhelmed. However this was not to be the case. We arrived at the campsite for Uluru in the afternoon and immediately set up our tents. Since this is a popular tourist destination, there is a lot of space to camp as well as three hotels and a few restaurants. We than set out to seen sunset at Uluru, which is around a half hour from the tourist center. It was truly a special experience. Rising up from the Outback, Uluru looks like something from outer space. It is composed completely out of red sandstone, and is literally an "island mountain," the last remnant of a mountain range that eroded over time. We returned to our accommodations, and I decided that it was time for a shower. Lucky for me, the public showers were infested with insects. I saw centipedes, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, and a green praying mantis as I showered that night. That night we all slept in our 13 person tent, yes, we had a 13 person tent. The next day was the longest hiking day. First we woke up at 5 in the morning to watch the sun rise on Uluru. It started out beautifully, but than unfortunately, the clouds came out and it was a little bit of a bummer. We then all made our way to Kata Tjuta, or The Olgas, the other special rock formation in this area of the outback. The Olgas are a series of large, bald, domed rock outcroppings located about a half hour drive from Uluru. The hike was an easy 3 hour loop through The Olga's. The only two things that made it unpleasant were the flies and the heat. After recuperating at the Aboriginal Heritage Center, we began our late afternoon hike around Uluru. This hike was very enjoyable because it allowed us to see exactly what Uluru looks like up close. It is completely red and steeply sloped. There were however certain rock walls that had long cracks in them which I assume had been caused by water over time. Later that night, a few friends and I were upset to discover that the gas jerrycan in our trunk had leaked. While my bag had been closed, one of my friends got gasoline all over their clothes. The rest of the night was spent scrubbing the trunk and airing it out. The next day was our last drive, from Uluru to Alice Springs. On the way, we stopped to help some Aboriginals whose car had broken down. Their tire had to be changed, and they didn't have a jack. We then stopped at King's Canyon, a beautiful canyon with lots of native wildlife. The hike was very tiring, but was made very special when we found the trail down to the waterhole in the center of the canyon. It was one of the best moments of the whole trip, swimming in that water for that hour and a half or so. We made it into Alice Springs very late at night, around 11:30, and had to wake up the hostel owners to get in. The next day was rainy, but I took part of the day to walk around Alice Springs. Frankly, it was depressing. There were a lot of poor Aboriginals begging on the street. We were in a art store looking for authentic aboriginal artwork and didgeridoos when a poor Aboriginal woman walked in trying to sell a piece of artwork. The shopkeeper basically threw the woman out of her store in a very aggressive fashion. It was very uncomfortable. It felt like a larger Coober Pedy, but with none of the charm. And now, 3 cool stories out of Australia. Carl Williams, one of the Australia's most notorious gangsters, was murdered in Australia's most secure prison. Since it took prison guards 25 minutes to find him, there is widespread speculation that corrupt policemen might have been behind his murder. Australia recently passed their version of universal health care. Public hospitals will now be funded out of Canberra instead of by the individual state governments. In sports, the Melbourne Storm, a national rugby league team, were stripped of their championships in 2007 and 2009 because they cheated the salary cap. They basically hid the fact that they were spending an extra 2 million a year on their players. Australians are calling it the biggest sports scandal in the nation's history. More to come...

Outback Pictures Part #1

Outback Adventures Part #1

Sorry for the long break, but I have a lot of info to share on the last month or so. Passover already seems like it was weeks ago, oh wait, it was, but it is still worth writing about. Thanks to my mom and our friends the Paley's, I was set up with a nice family called the Schmerlings for the first Seder. Lane, her husband, and her three children, one of whom is already a doctor were all excellent hosts. They live in Carleton, and upper middle class suburb of Melbourne with a significant Jewish population. Their Seder was traditional but did not fixate on the order as much as Seders I am used to. This proved to be my downfall when I had finished eating dinner and realized I hadn't had any Charoset. It was embarrassing to realize it had already been cleared from the table. No one had told me it was served. Another plus for the Schmerling's Seder was it came in at a cool 4 hours, a perfect amount of time for a Seder. The second night of Seder was spent with the Schmerling's closest friends. They were wonderful hosts as well. Following the Seders, I had my week long Easter break to look forward to. My friend Kev and I organized a week long road trip to Alice Springs. The group ended up being 13 people traveling in three rental cars. My car included Kev, myself, our friend Joe from Rutgers, our friend Ali from Minnesota, and Dave, the frenchman. The second car was composed of Colleen and Ann Marie, both from Minnesota, Zsoka, a Hungarian from Budapest, and Latrisha, a German living in Ibiza, Spain. The last car had Kenny from Ireland, and Etan, Jonatan, and Edy, all Mexican Jews from Mexico City. Instead of going the fastest route from Melbourne to Alice Springs, we decide to go via the great ocean road and Adelaide. The trip ended up being a total of 1,403 miles, or the equivalent of driving from New York City to New Orleans and then driving another 100 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. The reason we took this out of the way route was because the great ocean road is one of the most scenic roads in the world. Highlights of the road include spectacular Southern Australia Coastline, and amazing natural land formations like the 12 Apostles and "The Gorge." The first day of the road trip was spent driving from Melbourne, along the great ocean road, to the small town of Warnambool. Along the way we stopped at the delightful seaside town of Lorne, where we took a beautiful hike that led us to an outlook overlooking the town and the coast. The highlight of the first day was seeing the 12 apostles. The 12 apostles are freestanding limestone rock formations off the coast of Australia. There aren't exactly 12, the ocean continues to destroy them, but they are still incredibly impressive. By the time we got to Warnambool, it was very late, and we were all very hungry. We found a place called Pinky's Pizza where we able to order two giant pizzas that sated everyone. The next morning, we began the long eight hour drive from Warnambool to Adelaide, the capital of Southern Australia and the "city of churches." We arrived in Adelaide in the late afternoon and immediately took a short walk through the city. I got to see Adelaide's university which was very pretty. It is located right on the River Torrens and is much greener than the University of Melbourne. That night we stayed at Cannon's Backpackers, a fairly nice hostel located in the center of the city. For dinner, my friends ordered "floaters," meat pies drenched in pea soup. Needless to say, I did not partake in this Southern Australian tradition. That night we experienced the night life in Adelaide. Unfortunately, some of my friends were foolish enough to wear flip flops. The bouncers rejected them at every bar until we finally found one desperate enough to let us all in. It was a fun night. The next morning, I woke up at 11:00 and immediately freaked out because check out was at 10. Lucky for me, it was daylight savings time, on top of that, Adelaide is in a timezone a half hour earlier than Melbourne, so I was fine. Our next stop in the trip was Flinders Ranges, north of Adelaide, and the southern region of the outback. On the way to Hawker, the town in Flinders Ranges where we would camp that night, we stopped in Woomera. Woomera is where the Australian army tests their missile and weapons system, when you arrive there, you understand why. It is small and dusty and has one store. It does however have old weapons systems that compose a very interesting outdoor museum. Once we arrived in Hawker, we took a short walk out of the campsite to see the sunset and were introduced to outback flies. They fly around your face and don't even try to bite you. They just attempt to enter your mouth, nose, and eyes. Very annoying part of otherwise gorgeous scenery. More to come tomorrow....

Grampians, Birthday, Phillip Island Pictures

The Grampians, my birthday, and Phillip Island

Hey Everybody,

It's been two long weeks, but I'm back. These past two weeks were highlighted by a spectacular camping trip to The Grampians, my birthday, and a day trip out to Phillip Island. The Grampians is a mountain range and national park about 146 miles west of Melbourne. Me and a group of 12 friends set out by bus to Halls Gap, the largest town in the Grampians region. I was joined by my friends from Rutgers, Kev and Laura and a bunch of american girls, Christy, Emily, Allie, and Alyssa. Than there was Dave (a frenchman), Andreas (a swede), Anthony, Libby, Ruby, and Hugh (Australians) We planned on camping in the designated camping are in town for the first night, and than setting out into the bush to find a place to camp the second night. The first day was spent hiking to a waterfall, and than a beautiful walk along a rocky ridge. I even had the good fortune of spotting an echidna, a porcupine like creature found only in Australia. That night was spent star gazing and drinking. I also met two motorcyclists on their way back to Adelaide who were very eager to hear about my adventures in Australia, as well as recommend locations in Victoria I should travel to. We woke up the next morning and packed all our gear in Anthony's car, with the expectation that we would set out before dusk to find a spot to camp in the bush (saving us money of course) We than did a 4 mile day hike up to a spot in The Grampians called The Pinnacle. It is a thin rock face that juts out of the mountain overlooking Halls Gap. On the way we did a detour up a steep rock face. It was harrowing but also very rewarding. It had an amazing view, and linked up with the trail that we would have taken back from The Pinnacle. Waiting for us at the top of the mountain were giant, winged, ants that had stingers. As someone who is afraid of insects with stingers, with good cause, I spent most of my time on The Pinnacle looking to avoid these pests. On our way back to Anthony's car to get our camping gear, we ran into around twenty gray kangaroos. They were just grazing outside the camp area. While they were understandably skittish, we held out our empty hands and more often than not, a kangaroo would hop over to within a few feet expecting food. There were also white cockatoos and green and red parrots flying all over the place. Before it got to dark, we set out on the trail to look for a suitable place to camp. With a group of thirteen, we were going to need an area that would be suitable for the four tents, as well as the tarp that Andreas, Kev, and I had slept on the night before. We made it back to the waterfall, but still could not find a place to camp. About an hour before nightfall, Kev and Christy ran ahead on the trail to look for a spot. Luckily, they found one about twenty minutes on the trail, and than 5 minutes off it. After clearing space, we set up camp in the forest overlooking a valley. That night happened was the beginning of my birthday so we stayed up late, talking and drinking. It was real camping, and it was fantastic. The next day we woke up with the sun and hiked back down. We chilled in Halls Gap for an hour or two before our bus came to take us back to Melbourne. The following Saturday, Kev, Laura, Dave, Jochka (girl from Budapest), and I woke up early and made the two hour drive to Phillip Island. Phillip Island is one of the more popular tourist attractions in Victoria because of its beautiful coastline and because of its colony of little penguins. The little penguin is the smallest species of penguin typically growing to only 17 inches tall. Than we got the treat of witnessing the "Penguin Parade." At about 7 at night, we paid twenty bucks to sit with a bunch of loud tourists at designated spots on the beach. As it grew colder and darker, our anticipation grew. Than at about 8:30, little penguins started landing on the beach by parachute, no, they came from the ocean. Than in groups of 10-20, they began to scurry to their burrows on the beach, passing us as they went. A "little penguin" is smaller than the emperor penguin chicks from March of the Penguins. It was great to see how they would wait in the shallows, bunch up in formation, than scurry for their homes. Earlier in the evening, some loud raptors had been circling the beach. Unfortunately, but understandably, pictures were not allowed. It was a unique experience and one I won't soon forget. We headed back to Melbourne at around 10, got stuck in traffic, got grouchy, and got back to the village at around 12:30. Than I woke up in morning and watched Northern Iowa defeat Kansas. I love the time difference. More to come...

Sydney Pictures

Sydney Travels

G'day,

It's been two weeks and I am finally settling into life in Australia. My first two weeks in Melbourne were stressful and exhilarating as I prepared for the coming semester, while doing my best to meet some of the 400 students living in my housing complex. I live in RMIT village which is a block from the University of Melbourne campus and a five minute walk from the central business district (downtown). My first week in Melbourne was spent meeting people, visiting the campus, and taking long walks through downtown Melbourne. The Yarra river runs through Melbourne and the city has done a great job of utilizing it's river walk. The river is lined on both sides with restaurants, museums, and theaters as well as the aquarium. The two main shopping streets are Elizabeth St., which runs right by RMIT, and Swanston Street. Like New York, Melbourne also has a sizable Chinatown. While I still have a week to finalize my class schedule, I am locked into two of my classes. I am taking an introduction to Australian Politics as well as introduction to criminology. I always wanted to take a criminology course at Rutgers and never got around to it. Australian politics are interesting because their "democratic" party is the labor party and their "republican" party is called the liberal party. Also, Australia has a Prime Minister who disappeared. Harold Holt was only Prime Minister for one year when he disappeared while swimming in the ocean. While it is assumed he drowned, his body was never found. I suppose the Kennedy assassination and the conspiracies that surround it are the only equivalent in American politics. This past weekend my friend Kevin and I decided to take a weekend trip to Sydney. Kevin also attends Rutgers but I had never met him until the first orientation for Melbourne back in December. On Thursday night, we took an 11 hour overnight train from Melbourne to Sydney (Ughhh). Lucky for us, a former student of my dad's, and family friend named Briyah Paley was generous enough to let us stay in her apartment for the weekend. She was also nice enough to show us around on Friday. We started off our travels in Sydney by taking a beautiful ocean side hike from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is famous in Australia for its Baywatch style reality show featuring its lifeguards performing spectacular lifesaving maneuvers. Bondi Beach is also one of the well known Jewish neighborhoods in Sydney and has around five synagogues. We than took a tram to Sydney's most popular destination, its harbor (spelled harbour here). Unlike Melbourne, Sydney is a vast city. Therefore, its public transportation is a lot cheaper than in Melbourne. While in the states, I wanted to know what American cities Sydney and Melbourne could be compared to. I heard varying comparisons from different people, but now agree that the best comparison would be Sydney to L.A and Melbourne to San Francisco. Unfortunately, it was raining all day Friday but we still spent some quality time at the Sydney Opera House. It is a beautiful structure and according to its designer Jorn Utzon, "a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent." We spent time marveling at the beautiful shell like structures rising out of the base, and gazing at Sydney's endless harborside real estate. After the opera house, we made our way through a street fair to The Rocks. The Rocks are the official point where the first settlers in Sydney landed. As such, it is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Sydney. Randomly, two pubs in "The Rocks" claim on their awnings that they are the oldest pub in Sydney. After searching for hours (at least it felt like hours) for a place to eat dinner, Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world and unlike New York, you will not get a lot of bang for your buck at the "nice" restaurants. We finally ventured back to Newtown, where we found an affordable Italian eatery on King St. After the fact, Kevin was looking through his Frommer's guide and told me that Frommer's recommended King St. in Newtown as the best location to find relatively inexpensive food. The next day was beautiful so we immediately headed right back to the harbor. We let a street performer entertain us for an hour,than decided to take advantage of the sun and snap a few more pictures with the opera house and Harbour Bridge. We than took a short walk to the government house in Sydney, located in a park about a five minute walk from the opera house. That was followed by an hour-and-a-half ferry ride which took us to many of Sydney's harbors, and also taught us a little bit of the history surrounding the development of the city. Kevin than dragged me to a contemporary art museum. It was free, so I didn't complain. We met two of Kevin's friends who were studying in Sydney, and ended up spending the night at a beautiful bar called Orbit bar. Orbit bar is is on the 47th floor of Sydney Tower and rotates in a circle. After an hour, you will have seen a panoramic view of the city. It was a fantastic two days and I arrived back to Melbourne this morning. Hopefully, I will get back to Sydney before I leave. More to come...

Random Fact: It hailed in Melbourne while I was in away. Not sure how I feel about this.

skydiving

Who's the Man

We Conquered the Glacier

First Post From Melbourne

Kia ora,

I have just arrived in Melbourne and wanted to share with you all my adventures in New Zealand the past three weeks. When I originally decided to study abroad in Melbourne, I had no idea that I would have an opportunity to travel in New Zealand. Little did I know that my third cousin Idan, his girlfriend Dana, and their 11 month old son Omer have been living in Auckland for a year while Idan worked towards his masters. With my semester not starting until March 1st, I decided to spend a few weeks in New Zealand. The plan was to spend a week in Auckland and the North Island with my cousins, and than make my way down to the more spectacular South Island of New Zealand. I spent my first couple days in New Zealand just exploring Auckland and spending time with my cousins. Auckland is a very warm, sunny, and compact city that is also a popular destination for students looking to study abroad. I visited the Auckland museum, which had fantastic exhibits on Maori culture and spent a good deal of time walking along Queen Street, the Broadway of Auckland. Auckland is a very diverse city with a very large Asian population. The typical foodcourt in Auckland has food stations serving Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai, Indian, and Filipino food. I also met some nice people from the small south pacific island of Tonga. After those few days in Auckland, I flew down to Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island at about 300,000 people. New Zealand only has around 4 million people total with 75% living in the North Island. I only spent one night in Christchurch but noted that it was modeled after a traditional English town or city with the cathedral placed at the center of the town square and every other street named after King George or Queen Victoria. To travel the South Island, I had bought a ticket on a KiwiExperience bus. KiwiExperience is a touring company that caters mostly to young adults in their 20s as well as to Brits taking a gap year between high school and university. From Christchurch, I took a 5 hour drive through the Canterbury Plains and then through Lewis pass, the northern most pass of the Southern Alps. It was incredibly beautiful and very green. We were traveling to a small town called Westport, which is on the Western Coast of the South Island. On the way there, I had the opportunity to go Jetboating which is one of the many thrilling activities they like to do in New Zealand. Jetboating is a high speed boat ride where the driver will randomly go into 360 degree spins as well as bank dangerously close to the rocks alongside the river. After staying the night in Westport, we began traveling south down the coast to Lake Mahinapua. On the way we stopped to hike the beautiful coastline and see fur seals at the Cape Foulwind Seal Colony. We also stopped to see the beautiful Punakaiki Pancake Rocks which have been shaped by the ocean into the most fantastic formations. Lake Mahinapua is famous for its Poo Pub where KiwiExperience has been partying for over 20 years. It is run by a 83 year old man named Les who hadn't shaved since the mid 70s. It is just a random pub/hostel on the side of the highway and I suspect that KiwiExperience are the only regular patrons. We had a P party at the Poo Pub (everyone had to dress like something that started with P), so me and my friend Eric dressed as champions Ping Pong players. It was a great night. The next day we drove further down the coast to one of the more popular KiwiExperience and South Island destinations, the town of Franz Joseph. On the way we stopped at a quaint little wildlife center/museum called the Bushman Center. Here they taught us about how the 80 million possums in New Zealand are wreaking havoc with no natural predators. They also showed us a fascinating video on how Kiwi's (New Zealander's) caught wild deer to begin farming them. In short, they would fly a helicopter over the deer and someone would jump off the helicopter and capture the deer. The United States hired Kiwi's to show them their methods when America was trying to reestablish the wild bison population. Franz Joseph is famous for it's glacier and it's 12,000 foot skydive which has been called the most scenic in the world by the Lonely Planet guidebooks. On the only full day I had in Franz Joseph I hiked the glacier. I was in the first group so it was are job to slowly make the path for the rest of the groups to follow. Unfortunately, we got a rainy and foggy day so the surrounding jungle was not as clear as it could have been. I also decided to wear shorts on the hike so when it began raining and I was on top of the glacier, it was uncomfortable to say the least. Luckily, it was not a very cold day. The next morning, I woke up at 5:45 to go skydiving. We were driven about ten minutes to the skydiving site where we were given a quick tutorial. The plane was only big enough for two people to go at a time, so lucky for me, I was chosen to go first. The flight up to 12,000 feet was a little nerve wracking but also very beautiful. Looking down I could see Franz Joseph Glacier as well as Fox Glacier and the surrounding mountains. There was also a lot of jungle and ocean far below. When the time came to drop out of the plane, I was ready. The expert I was hooked to slipped one foot out of the plane, than it was my job to dangle off the plane. We took a few pictures and than jumped. The best part was turning around and seeing the plane dropping away. Unlike a roller coaster where your stomach drops, there is no feeling like that because you were already moving fast in the plane. Instead, you feel cold high powered winds slamming into your mouth as you go down in the 45 second free fall. After that the parachute deployed and I was able to enjoy the mountains, glaciers, jungles, and ocean thousand's of feet below me. After skydiving, we met up with the bus and began the trip to Lake Wanaka. Lake Wanaka is a small town next to a lake (duh) that serves as a ski town in the winter and a beautiful hiking/adventure sport retreat in the summer. We spent one night in Wanaka before departing for Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. For most of the people on the bus, this was where they would be saying goodbye and spending a few days. Queenstown is home to the first commercial bungee jump in the world, the Kawarau Bridge Bungee. At 141 feet and a 3 second free fall, it is a popular destination for people looking for a thrill. It pales in comparison to Nevis Bungee in Queenstown. Nevis Bungee is the highest on the continent and comes in at 440 feet above the canyon floor. With an 8 second free fall, it is considered the best natural drug you could take. Unfortunately I did not partake in these activities (lack of funds, not guts) and went luging on Mt. Cook, which overlooks all of Queenstown and is incredibly beautiful. I also did a day trip to Milford Sound which is considered the most beautiful spot in all of New Zealand. It was a fantastic time but I was excited to get to Melbourne. I arrived back in Auckland, got my bags, thanked my cousins for their very generous hospitality, and arrived in Melbourne three days ago. More to come...