The Name of the Game

School starts on Tuesday. I will have class Tuesdays at 3 PM and 7 PM, each for two hours, then one class on Wednesday night at 5 PM. A good balance if you ask me.

An interesting phenomenon going on at the Village right now: the study abroad kids are arriving. I'm now getting a taste of what it must be like at a school that tends to attract Americans studying abroad. It is pretty comical. I've started playing a "are you American?" game with myself. Simply by looks, not by accent. It'd be too easy if I heard them talk. By this point I'm almost able to determine where someone is from by their English accent. The differences are quite significant after listening to them for awhile.

But enough about me. I'm still plodding my way through Yao Ming and thinking about life. For example, where do I go from here? It's quite the conundrum. And I don't have to have answers now, it's just at the back of my mind. Everyday it's there, lurking like that monster waiting in your closet. It won't pounce for another six months but it's there.

Anyways, if anyone wants to tell me what to do with myself, feel free to leave a comment.

Lost in Translation

The last week and a half I've immersed myself in Yao Ming. I'm putting together a short biography for OTTN Publishing and it's been quite the doozy. Yao has to be one of the most interesting human beings to study, regardless of the fact that he stands at around 7 feet 6 inches tall. He's led quite the life thus far. Be sure to pick up a copy of my book. It'll be epic.

The funniest thing about the experience has been the research. I've picked up a couple of books, one is the Yao Ming autobiography, the other a translated piece on Yao from China. And both are chock full of translated hilarity. Check out this piece from Yao Ming: The Road to the NBA:

"The Bayi Rockets were middle-aged knights-errant who had experienced countless vicious battles; they had ashen faces and curly beards and were covered with scars, yet they were still steadfast and ruthless in battle. The Shanghai Sharks were young swordsmen who had finally attained great results through years of arduous training; they were brightly garbed raging stallions, eyes blazing like torches, thirsting to attain domination through decisive battle."

The wording of this passage makes the two teams seem like two empires battling it out on the fields of Ningbo, as opposed to a gym in Shanghai. Brilliant stuff.

Life has been quiet. Class starts in just over a week. Still no word on the internship among other things. I'm slightly agitated by the mess of organization Sydney University seems to have, but at the same time trying to learn patience from it. Off to watch the Arsenal (hopefully).

New Zealand: Day Seven

This day sucked. I don't want to talk about it. Phooey.

We ate breakfast and went to a park in the morning. It rained on us. Suck. Then we caught the bus and went to the airport. Boo again.

All in all, excellent trip. I am the luckiest person. I've gotten to go to four separate countries in the last 7 month with an amazing woman. I should not complain about anything.

The last few days I've just been working, indulging my sport habit, and struggling to write a book about Yao Ming. Any suggestions can be posted as a comment. Hope everyone is well where ever you are reading this wonderful peace of literature that is my blog.

Off to Yao-land.

New Zealand: Day Six

We woke up this morning dreading the fact that our trip was nearing the end. But still another day to go. Today we were flying back up to Auckland. This required dropping of the rental car that some kind soul decide to hit, costing me $250 NZ. Boo to them. Oh well. Can't do anything about it. The good people at Explore More rentals gave us a lift to the domestic terminal.

Our flight was a bit delayed. I didn't really care like some of the other people in the terminal. When you fly budget airlines, I always assume the worst, and whatever improves off of that is a bit better. When we did get on our flight, everything went smoothly and we caught the shuttle bus into Auckland.

As soon as we had dropped off our belongings, we grabbed a quick lunch. Unfortunately, the hostel wasn't ready for us, and we had to return to the hostel once we had our rooms. A bit of a hassle, but no worries. The rest of the day was spent wandering around Auckland, going through the botanic gardens, up to the wharf, and last but not least, up to the top of Sky City, a tower in the middle of centre city. Sarah and I had a seven month anniversary/ Valentine's Day celebration drink, then went back to the hostel. I was not feeling very healthy at this point of the trip. And it was the last night. Double bummer.

New Zealand: Day Five

Today was a return to Christchurch through Arthur's Pass. But first, a quick jaunty up the coast to Punakaiki to look at the Pancake Rocks. I wasn't too sure what these were, but Sarah was keen for it, and that was good enough for me.

The drive wasn't too long and it was good fun. I imagined that it is similar to what the Pacific Coast must be like (maybe somewhere along the East Coast as well, but who knows). There were windy turns, long straightaways that made it seem like a roller coaster that you could control the speed of. Good fun indeed. Once at the Pancake Rocks, we took a stroll around and looked at the various shapes the oceans had carved out of these rocks. A pretty sight indeed.

The long drive back to Christchurch began after this. Midway through the country, it began to rain on and off, putting a damper on any views or stops we would have made. However, after making it out of the mountains, the rain stopped and the sun was shining again. We pulled into Christchurch and stumbled our way to the gondola. The quick ride up the side of the mountain provided a good view of the valley.

It was a nice sunny day in Christchurch and after our short gondola trip we dropped our stuff off at the hostel and had a great dinner in the Botanical Gardens. After that, it was off to sleep, with an early wake up to fly back to Auckland.

New Zealand: Day Four

Phew, already half way through. And still more adventures to cover! Hope that you're still with me, and possibly reading this blog. Probably not. Anyways, Sarah and I got up at the crack of dawn and drove down first thing in the morning to Fox Glacier. We managed to catch the sunrise on the way down (pictured left). The view on the lake was gorgeous! The water was now unbelievably still, and while it was an overcast day, it was brilliant! Below is a sample of what we looked at.

After the quick hike (again), we made it to the starting point of the glacier hike. Our group gathered around our guides, and we were given socks, boots, and crampons for the journey. Then we jumped on an old school bus that was designed like the old buses they used in the 50s and 60s to get people to and from the glacier.

Now I don't feel like writing too much about it, but glaciers are really interesting objects. They are basically very slow rivers, as rivers move 100,000 times faster than a glacier. I picked up on lots of interesting facts that I now don't remember or are hard to explain. At various points as we walked up the trail towards the glacier, the guide would point and indicate that the glacier had been up to this point at some time or another.

Anyways, the hike onto the glacier took ages. It was an intense hour and a half walk up winding steps that had been put into the side of the mountain. There was even a 150 meter walk along the bluffs with nothing but a 300 foot drop onto some rocks. The valley the glacier was set in was quite the geological feat. I was impressed to say the least.

So once the hike was over, we threw on our crampons and were on the ice! It was such a bizarre thing to do; I always associate ice with slipping and falling. To walk on it and have that not happen is unusual. After about 10 minutes of walking around I got used to the crampons and how to best utilize them. So our guide took us up and around the different paths that were cut into the ice. The glacier itself is gigantic:

The whole experience was unlike anything I'd ever done before. Quite obvious though, because I've never walked on a large block of ice before. I definitely recommend it sometime, especially in New Zealand.

After we finished there we hopped in the car and drove up the coast. Our next destination: Greymouth. We took our time going up the coast, stopping a couple times to admire the beach views and to rest. Once we got to Greymouth we went to a grocery store, picked up some pasta for dinner which we cooked at the hostel. Once we were done eating, we went to the beach for the sunset which was almost all covered by the clouds. Blah. Then we called it a night.

New Zealand: Day Three

The next morning we were to set out towards the glaciers. Beyond that, our plans were mostly tentative; I didn't know if we were going to try and make it out onto one of them.

The drive through the rest of Central Canterbury proved to be just as tricky as it was the day before. Winding through steep and narrow roads was both fun and exhausting. After about an hour and a half of it, the road flattened out. Then a funny thing happen. We came upon a coast to coast race, a annual event in New Zealand which is a race from the West Coast to the East Coast, a 243 km journey involving running, kayaking, and biking. The course record we found out later? 10 hours. That is pretty darn impressive if you ask me.

We wound our way down to the coast as the road turned south towards Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. The road followed an interesting path, winding in and around trees, but staying flat. However, when we neared the signs that read "Glacier Country" the roads began to wind back and forth. The ascent back up the mountains began once again.

The first glacier town, Franz Josef, didn't take long to reach. The entire town was nothing more than different companies that would take you on the glaciers via hikes, helicopters, or 4WD vehicles. Along with those offices, there were various houses, two or three restaurants, and accommodations. No traffic lights, and maybe two roads aside from the main road running through town. We decided to head down to the other glacier, located near the town of Fox Glacier. With no specific agenda aside from checking out the reflection of Mt Cook on Lake Matheson, we made a move further south.

If Franz Josef was a small blip on the map, Fox Glacier was (what's lower than a blip?) whatever that is. We stopped and tried to find Lake Matheson. It was about a 10 minute drive from the "centre" of town and required a hike around the lake. Alas, to our disappointment, due to wind factors, we couldn't see the reflection! Bust! Still a good view though:

Yeah Jmu pride! From there we decided to try our luck at a late afternoon glacier hike. This was a no go, as we were too late, but we decided to head down the next day and go for one.

Once departed from Fox Glacier, we went back to check out Franz Josef. The glacier was pretty difficult to get to, as you had to climb over dry creek beds full of rocks that weren't too stable. But we made it to the very front, as you can tell from the picture at the top of the post. After that long journey, we headed back into town and had drinks at the pub. We also decided to go down early in the morning and see if we could get a reflection, as we heard it would be visible early in the morning.

New Zealand: Day Two

After spending our first day in Christchurch, it was now time to move on and explore the rest of the South Island in the limited time we had available. I had arranged for a shuttle bus to pick us up from our hostel and take us to Explore More, the rental place that I had booked a car with for the next few days.

Our rental car was this small four door Toyota that I had never seen of or heard of before. It would get the job done: that is, have four wheels and take us to wherever we wanted to go. Of course, in NZ they drive on the left, so that was an initial concern for me. I had to make sure that I was thinking long and hard about what I was doing, especially at the beginning of the driving experience.

The plan was to grab some food and then head towards our first destination: Arthur's Pass. After a quick stop at the grocery store with food that we hoped wouldn't go bad in a few days, I drove.

At the start, the drive was very flat. As soon as the car passed outside of the Christchurch city limits, the landscape was limited to trees of varying shapes and sizes. It was just about as flat as I pictured the middle of the US would be. There were a few small towns that we passed through as well. About an hour into our drive (maybe less) the views began. Along the horizon, mountains began to crop up. And not your Appalachian-type mountains that leave you thoroughly unimpressed; rather, mountains that stirred something inside you. I think this was mostly due to the fact that all I could think about was Lord of the Rings and how much I wanted this to be Middle Earth. But needless to say, it was awesome.

The drive to Arthur's Pass took around 2 to 2 and a half hours. It was pretty tricky driving, especially since I was on the opposite side of the road. Once at the village, we checked in to our hostel and headed out to find somewhere to hike. After all, the mountains called us.

We decided to start with the Devil's Punch Bowl hike. This only took about an hour round trip, and it ended up at the foot of a water fall. After spending some time there, we headed back. On the way, we noticed the sign for another trail; this one went up Mt Aicken. Having no other plans, we headed up.

This hike was much more difficult. The incline was quite steep, and there were rocks and roots hindering the ascent. I felt significantly out of shape. But we pressed on, and made it up about halfway. The view from there was breathtaking:

When we made it to about the halfway point, we lingered for a bit. Part of me wanted to try and make it up the rest of the way (I'll admit not a very big part), but reason won over desire, as we lacked proper food and water supplies. So we cruised back down the mountain and called it a day.

After resting up a bit, we attempted a picnic dinner at a few locations but were rudely interrupted by thousands of biting gnats. Or mosquitoes. Some kind of insect that bit and drew blood. Upon return to the hostel we called it an early night and went to sleep.

New Zealand: Day One

Well, back from New Zealand. What an awesome time it was! It is by far the most beautiful country that I have ever seen. It's really just like Lord of the Rings (not really, but kind of).

I'm going to break down each day of the trip in separate posts as to not confuse the 4 people who actually read this blog. Here goes:

I arrived in Auckland the night of the 5th and stayed overnight at a hostel in close proximity to the airport. It was a funny experience, as a big Pacific Island drove the shuttle bus to pick me up at night, and then another large Pacific Islander dropped me off. People from that part of the world come in two sizes: large, and extra large.

The next morning I was meeting Sarah back at the International terminal. Her flight was delayed a bit, but we were reunited at around 8 in the morning. With nothing to do for the next 3 hours except wait for our flight to Christchurch. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Auckland so we meandered towards the domestic terminal and sat on the benches alongside the walkway. Sarah was relieved to escape the rainy bog of Taiwan, and I was just happy to see her.

We boarded our flight to Christchurch which was uneventful, save for the view from our seats. We had a window seat that turned into a viewfinder once the South Island came into view. The mountains were everywhere! I was beyond excited by this point. Time to pretend like I was in Lord of the Rings!

After a smooth landing in Christchurch, we jumped in a shuttle to take us to our hostel. Unfortunately, the clerk had made a mistake with our booking and didn't have a spot for me in the hostel. D'oh! He rectified the situation by providing accommodation at another hostel called Thomas's Hotel a block over. We ditched our luggage and headed out for the rest of the day.

Having arrived mid-afternoon and being a bit travel weary, Sarah and I ventured around to find a cafe or restaurant to eat at. This proved to be expensive, but heck, it's vacation! After eating a quick meal, we explored the botanic gardens for the rest of the day. Here's a sample below:



By the time the day was done, we were both quite tired (or at least I was). Sarah dragged me out after dinner and we had a nice dinner at a pub across the street from our hostel and went outside for a nice stroll. It was a near perfect start to a grand adventure.

On the Road Again

I'm in the airport now, just under two hours from going to New Zealand with Sarah. Not much else to say other than that is awesome.

It's been raining a lot here which has been no fun. I got caught in the rain on my way to grabbing a bite to eat at the Landsdowne Hotel. $5 meal of Chicken Schintzel, mushroom sauce, and chips. Yum! Will try and update posts from New Zealand once or twice. Over and out.