Hambone, Hambone, where ya been?

Everyday it's a-gettin' closer
Goin' faster than a roller coaster

But seriously, again apologies for the spaced entries into this intimate travel diary. Much has happened, an epic narrative best told in pictures. Unfortunately, Dinonysus has taken a back seat, as moving usually loses him for a few days and he's getting a tad bent out of shape.

Cam and I have moved out of the house to the hostel, or rather what will become a hostel in a few weeks. Right now it is a work zone with 7:30 drilling and dusty air that hasn't been an awesome combo with my current cold. But it's really quite fun, like a big constant slumber party.

Hostel life, and the living's easy

Remember, remember the 5th of November... or so I've been told. I've never remember the 5th of November before, much to my dismay. This is a holiday that I strongly support, as it involves mass amounts of fireworks to celebrate an outlaw. Welcome to Guy Faux Day! A sinister plot to blow up the British Parliament has resulted in legalized fireworks for 3 days of every year here in NZ. Our neighbors, Kiwi to the core, bought a ton of combustibles and hosted roman candle battles (sorry mom! In our defense, everyone has on eye protection)

Hey BCD, let's blow shit up.

Also notable, my friend Chrissy came to visit on the tail end of her Australian studies with her friend Angie

Angie, Moi and Chrissy, can't imagine why they made us wear helmets...

A whirlwind 36 hours, we did a trail ride to the very locations where parts of Lord of the Rings was filmed. Geeking out! We got sweet helmets with bills, or as the locals say 'peaks'. My horse was huge, I could not have conceivably gotten on him without a mounting block. His name was Bob, short for Sponge Bob. He was a good sport but had a long face all day...

Helmeted Me and Big, Beautiful Bob

His size was especially advantageous when crossing streams. Everyone else was hoisting their gum boots (our given riding footwear, they're basically galoshes and a staple in Kiwi culture) Bob was a mellow fellow who went with the flow, and I'm pretty sure the Scottish women in our group were jealous.

Chrissy and Angie also motivated Cam and I to do something I swore that we never would... go to Minus 5, known to most as "The Ice Bar".
"Everybody, chill." -Mr.Freeze

The bar is named such because it is kept at a chilling minus 5 degrees Celsius (sidenote: I have had some minor adjustment troubles with the metric system) It costs a cool (pun intended) $31 to get in full price, but because we did the pub crawl, our admission was waived. Well, how do you adequately describe a 10x10 freezer with sub-par ice sculptures?... I think I just did. That said, because I'd been so set against the gimmick of it all, it was actually a lot of fun to pose for pictures, wear the jackets and drink from the cups made of ice. Chrissy got a drink called Pedros Passion.

My latest adventure out of Queenstown was down to the south tip of the south island, The Catlins, I rolled three friends from work, all from the lands of some of my forefathers and foremothers: Ireland. We cruised around checking out petrified forests, seals, light houses, penguins and the bottoms of beer bottles (what can I say? They're Irish!) The Catlins was an anomaly because I'd say it's the most beautiful place I've been so far in NZ, yet it was incredibly uninhabited and unexploited. We walked on a sunny beach at 11 in the morning as the seals rolled around, not another soul in sight. Twas nuts.

Darwinian Stand-off

One of the most interesting things I learned this weekend actually had nothing to do with nature or Kiwis or beer bottles, but rather a morsel of Irish culture known to most as "Tinkers". The politically correct term for a tinker is "A member of the traveling community". They are unique to Ireland because they originally took to the road during the famine. So, unlike other gypsies of the European persuasion, they are resented for abandoning the land, or more harshly "Losing the faith". They have unique accents, with words like boy becoming "ba". They remind me of the mythical leprechaun, as you can never trust them, you can always spot them and they don't quite fit into normal society. Also, although the girls dress like proper skanks, they are very adamant about waiting for marriage for sex, and their weddings are huge affairs, fit for any late night MTV programming to air.

Back to roadtrip. I saw many things I'd never seen before, and here are photos of the two most notable. I should mention it was a full moon, leaving us howling and prowling, we finally ended up on a beach at about 1 am kicking a football, er, soccer ball around. There was so much light from the moon and water from the South Pacific that there was actually a rainbow. I know you can't see it as well in the photo, but look closely, I swear it was there.


I also saw a penguin in the wild, something I've never had occasion to do in land-locked Colorado.



Yes, the sunglasses are new.

I feel I've run too long, but I suppose it's only because I haven't updated in forevs. So stay tuned, there's more to come.

In case you were wondering, New Zealand is still breathtakingly awesome.

Out.

New ADDRESS

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Adventure Queenstown Hostel & Chalet, Level 1, 36-38 Camp St, Queenstown, New Zealand, 9300