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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