Tuesday, February 22, 2011

2/22 To the North!

Well, well, well - I'm now back in Hamilton in the North Island.  Jon and I picked up hitchikers along the way and met some interesting people.  One guy is 27, from Minneapolis, and lives in North East - small world!  Making our way down to Queenstown, I ran into one of my best buds little brother, Michael McCarty, and the bar during the Super Bowl along with a bunch of other Johnnies and Bennies - it turned into a rowdy night with karaoke and all....
Jon, me, Roman (new friend from Holland, and Martin (the MN hitchhiker we bumped into again), tramped the Caples and Routeburn track for 4 days.  It was legendary (another kiwi word).  After the hike, I rolled my boot into a Fergburgers (Best burgers in NZED) to clear out the waiting line - oh was it sooooo goood to eat!  They ended up taking a picture of us boys for their homepage because we ordered the biggest sandwiches possible - I had the blue cod fish (The Codfather) - it was everything and more!   
Reunited with the Israel friends, we stayed in Queens a few more nights and then cruised over to Dunedin and Christchurch.  We stayed 3 nights with some killer people, Mel & James,  in CC.  It was hard to leave their house!  Mel is the singer in the band Sweet Leaf and has a gorgeous voice - looking forward to catching some her shows!
Jonny boy starts up school and now I'm on my own.  I think I'm going to head out to a small surfer town called Raglan, which is supposed to be fantastic.

Eating:  I've been eating really great - fresh fruit & vegetables can be found along the road side everywhere as well as some free range eggs!  My favorites to make:  rice w/ an egg, spring onion, carrot, lemon/lime, peanut butter, sweet chili sauce, little pepper, and any other vegetable (i.e. red/green pepper).   Sandwich - whole grain/wheat bread, cheese, avocado, tomato, spinach, red onion, olive, oil and vinegar dressing w/ salt, pepper, basil, rosemary, spices.
Sleeping:  The van has a double bed with storage underneath.  It is actually quite comfortable for two and has a large moonroof to check out the stars.  Not to mention it has some pretty cool curtains with sunglasses on them - lots of people dig the curtains.  I pretty much park the van anywhere and do freedom camping.  It's cool to find a river because you'll usually find other camper vans to hang out with too.
Showering:  With the few clothes that I have, I actually stay quite clean.  I would like to get a shampoo in a little more often, but eh.  I pretty much rock up to any river, lake, or waterfall and take a dip.  I'll even wash my clothes in the water (I have an organic soap).  The water is stunningly clear and drinkable everywhere.  I purchase a bag for solar showers, but have yet to use it ' )

Daily activities:  Mainly, I've been hiking during the day otherwise driving around for sight seeing.  I picked up a 2nd hand guitar and brought along a harmonica too.  I get lots of time to read have have been digging into some really great books: The Alchemist, Tao, Buddhist Life, Sun Signs, etc.  I have about a dozen books to go through.

Whew.....Jonny and I just left Christchurch right before the earthquake.  And yesterday a huge tree crashed down two car lengths in front of us, halting traffic for a long time.  Lucky ducks we are....thanks to all the prayers from the Tucson folk before we left the states!

That's all for now....

Pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/mike.j.edgar/2011_02_23NewZealand?feat=directlink

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