Leg 2: Buffalo

Well after a long trip from Washington D.C. I have made it up to Buffalo, NY.

The trip itself was fine, however towards the end the "lake effect" snow hit us and we ended up driving through a minor snow storm on the outskirts of Buffalo.

Speaking of snow, its everywhere here - every night so far it has snowed and quite heavily.

still feeling a bit under the weather from the flight, jetlag is a real killer if you let it get to you, hehe.

Well the past couple of days have just been rest days and a little sight seeing around Buffalo itself. I then head off to Ohio for a few days and then onto see a concert nearby while hopefully stopping in Cincinnati to meet up with another friend from EVE.

Staying in Buffalo has been an interesting experience - I was taken to a local grocery store/supermarket called "Wegmanns" or something like that - in any case it has everything there, they make most of the bread and biscuts and such in house where you can see them doing it.
they have pre-cut and ready meals, all you have to do is mix it together and cook it, it was really quite amazing, they also offered a cooking class during the day, about lunchtime near the entrance for people to stop and watch, just amazing.

And for the first time while being here I had Starbucks Coffee, and may I say it's nothing super special but they have some really weird coffee's.
Oh and the serving sizes are still huge....

Speaking of huge, and I know I go on about this alot but it really is an amazing thing...
the toilets right? They are also quite large - long and shallow, I didn't pay attention to this untill I was at a truck stop on the way to Ohio and looked at one of them for more than half a second and then at one of the truckies coming out - now it makes perfect sense... they are all obese balding men and thats the only Toilet that they could fit on!

Gotta love America eh?

Well Ohio should be nice and I will take lots of nice pretty pictures.

Leg 2: Washington D.C. Final Night

Well its the last night in Washington D.C. before I head up to Buffalo area to spend some time around there and enjoy the sights and scenery for the next while.

D.C. has been a real experience, after getting lost about 10 different times and yet managing to get where I wanted to everytime in the end I learnt that the system in Washington is madness at first but once you know what to look for it becomes much easier.

I have now been around the White House, the Capital buildings in D.C. and seen the outside of the Smithsonian and the various memorials around here - however due to some shoddy weather and mad traffic I have only 1-2 photo's but the memories are there and I am very thankful for those - maybe on the trip back I can get some more Photo's.

It was a really amazing thing though, to wake up one morning where I slept in a Hotel 2 blocks away from the White House, and see it down the street - one of the most powerful men in the world sleeping over there and everything - and then earlier in the day driving past the Pentagon...

Just pure Madness really, its really stunning to simply sit there and look at it, all the time its seen on the TV and in photo's but you never really identify with it as a place... well I do now - I know the streets around it, what it looks like and how truly amazing it is in person.

I must also thank the hospitality of my friends from the EVE Online game I play, the family I ate with for a couple of nights and their wonderful company along with a couple of other people who made me feel so welcome in this huge city.

Everything is just so huge though, all the streets - the highways, the meals! oh gosh the meals! 1 meal is enough to feed two normal people I swear!

I saw Avatar 3D at the Cinema today (Which was absolutely stunning mind you) with my host Mina, who is doing so much to make me feel welcome - but we ordered one LARGE drink, and no joke this thing was so huge that it took the both of us to finish it, even then it was an effort... the popcorn we had barely got touched as well as it was just too intimidating for me!

Speaking of drinks though, I finally got some nice alcholic drink today while at a Seafood Buffet in Washington's waterfront area - Mina ordered a mixed drink that was supposedly potent, she took a couple of sips and got quite tipsy so I offered to finish it - did so and wasn't even slightly affected, annoyed a little she proceeded another and ordered me to drink so I did and still wasn't affected.
Thus I conclude Americans need to learn to drink properly ;)

Hmmm, what else... ah yes! driving on the wrong side of the road!
SO AMAZINGLY MINDBENDINGLY MADENING!
Driving on the righthand side, instinct tells me that the car should go round a corner on the left? and WOOOOSH! there comes a 4x4 that is easily 3x larger than the little Kia I am in and is on the LEFT!
The amount of double takes I have done in situations like that is starting to get to me!
Its just crazy, that and how large all these Highways are and how straight and long the road are.

ah well, thats what I will just have to get used to I reckon.

I will upload more pictures and other things gradually as well as the couple I have from washington sometime in the next couple of days so keep that link I posted earlier handy all!

Leg 2: Washington DC

Well I am in Washington safely, everything is working out fine - my lovely friend Mina is amazing and isn't evil or anything bad as the naysayers might have cried out, but anyway - after a couple of nights sleeping off the Jetlag I am once again a human being (or as close to it as I come ;) )

had some "Red Robbin" food today, its a sort of fast-resteraunt, a mix of fast food and such, and by the lord the serving size was HUGE! I managed to eat it all however, it was alot of food.

Currently staying a friends place from EVE, he and his family are wonderful people and amazingly nice so it seems like I am staying here for a while and then I have a hotel room back in DC to stay at tonight, so another couple of days in DC is the way it goes, lots more to post but for now this will do untill I can have some time to sit down and splurge about all the things that have happened in detail since leaving NZ.

Leg 2: Los Angeles International Airport

Well after a VERY long flight (most of which I slept in short bursts) I am now sitting at the departure gate for my flight to Washington D.C. in about 55 minutes.

The flight itself was good, even if I did feel a little unwell for a part and cumulated in a right ol' upchuck as we landed (was very bumpy) but I didn't even notice touchdown so thats good.

Customs was a breeze, baggage got sent off to transfer and some nice (albiet HUGE) black volunteer came over and showed me where to head once I got out of the International area - which I was much obliged to and crosses LAX in 5-10 minutes with his guidance (;) )

Now its just a little more waiting and I can start gawking at USA and slow down and enjoy things (traveling at over 900km/h for 12 hours does weird things to you!)

Ahh, just typing this is giving me the shakes - I AM FINALLY HERE! HAHAHHA!

If you could see my grin now it would go from ear to ear!

I will upload a couple of photo's I took while the sun came up over the Pacific ocean this morning. ;) it was pretty specky.

Leg 1.5: Auckland Airport

Well I am successfully through Auckland customs and I am now waiting for the plane to land so I know which departure gate I will be using!

Things went smoothly so far, the morning was gentle and easy however my Aunty Sandy is now my only way of getting camping gear back to Aus as the Australian customs are likely (99% chance) of having to pull apart all the gear and check it since I have been camping... this costs a "few hundred dollars" according to the guy we spoke to, so it will just have to wait - Sandy said she would look after it for me, god bless my Aunty! Oh and I also got some new shoes (See I did it mum!) and through my old ones (:( I liked those shoes!) however they had two large splits down their sides by now.

Hopefully things keep going smoothly and I reach Washington DC latter today/early tomorrow (whichever timezone you prefer!)

Will post again when I get to my hotel in D.C

Photo's!

http://s842.photobucket.com/albums/zz348/nztous/

This should be the link for the pictues I am uploading, hopefully it works and if it does, enjoy!

Leg 1.5: Auckland Preperations

Well its nearly time to get everything togethe and get ready to fly to the USA.

The last few days have been good though, I spent most of the time staying in Auckland itself at a friends place, one of the guys I met when I did the Milford Sound track.

So I visited the Maritime Museum and the Auckland Museum along with a quick stopover at Mt. Eden and to have a look at its big crater (Which was actually pretty neat)

I am slowly uploading some photo's and will have a compilation to post hopefully latter today.

Leg 1.5: Auckland Reloaded

Well I am back in Auckland again, for the final week before I fly to the USA.

Having just got "home" from the Big Day Out i have to say I enjoyed it quite alot, even though the amount of people was mad and the small of drugs was quite literally everywhere the bands where great, I saw Mastodon (who I had never heard of before but where quite good), Powerfinger who where awesome and a few others, closing finally with the band Muse and the incredible mosh pit which I found myself in for the first 3-4 songs before I chickened out and pushed out through the amazingly packed crowd.

All in all a good day, a couple of drama's with the kid who's parents I was staying with - but after finally ditching that trainwreck I had a ball, ALOT of Eyecandy and interesting sights, along with a few jokers scaring people with costumes that made them look like they had been in a train wreck :P

I am looking forward to trying to let my shoulders finally recover as they are still very sore from all that pack hauling - everything else is fine and back to normal levels, thankfully.

Hopefully going to spend a couple of days with one of the guys who walked the track with me know, turns out he is an ex EVE-online player and has some similar interests to myself and is good fun to be around so that should be a right hoot, after that its a toss up whether to go up north from Waiwera and head to the bay of Islands for a day or two.

So, fingers crossed all will go well and I will continue having as much fun as I am right now

P.S. Photo's are coming soon™ as uploading 300 photos takes ages :P

Leg 1: Milford Track

Well, I have finally slogged it out and made it through four days of hard walking through the Milford Sound "Tramping" track in the Fjordland area in the South Island of NZ.

The track itself was an amazing thing to walk, enourmous mountains wherever you look and litterally hundreds of waterfalls streaming down the sides, and this was on the first two days which where clear as day and nice an warm, days three and four which consisted of the McKinnon pass and "tramp" to the Sandfly point respectively where the most murderous of the lot.

McKinnon pass is aproximately 1156m high at its tip, we climb from 600m to its peak in 2 hours or less (record is 45m according to the local hut ranger :O).
And foolish me climbed it TWICE!
1st time was on the 2nd day when it was clear so I could see the amazing views and get some pictures while the good weather lasted, and then again the next day when a full on storm rolled on past and dumped a F*** ton of snow on me - now clever old me was walking up the mountain and getting hot in all my thermals and extra layers so I stopped to have a drink and take some off - well by the time I got to the rest hut on the top of the mountain I was frozen stiff, dangerously cold not thinking clearly other than "Goddamn I want some dry warm clothes!"
However, with my omnipresent Aunty Sandy watching over me it took me 15 minutes, two more layers and a couple of nice warm cups of water to get me back to normality (Much to Sandy's relief - however she still hasn't let me forget it, nor would I want to, I know I learn the hard way but that was pushing it a little to far)
However after slowly walking down the opposite side of the mountain and recovering rapidly I was completely fine and pushing on.

I will now take this moment to balk at the sheer stupidity of my actions to pack such a heavy pack - weighing in at 18kg BEFORE I load up with 2kg of Water my pack was the heaviest I heard of - the average was 8-14kg.
BAD IDEA - my legs where so burnt out by the end of each day a half hour massage was needed on thighs, knees, ankles, calfs to make sure they would actually move the next day.

Now, back to the story!
Day four was our last day and perhaps the most fun, we woke very early as per the Rangers instructions after he informed us aprox 300mm of water was to fall that night, and to be ready early incase we needed to be helicoptered to the boat (We all LOVED this idea) so up we bounced, packed our packs and had our meals and waited.|
Come 7am the ranger says to us all that the stupidly expensive equipment they use to monitor water levels hadn't been working for the last hour so we had to simply push on out and see what its like for ourselves - so we thought, sure its probably so high it broke it, Yippe! but we where wrong, after a gentle 2 hours walking past some impressive spots we came to a point where the ranger stood with his pole and gestured onward with the words "Its only about here [knee to thigh] deep water for about four hundred meters, you'll be right - have a good time!"
I thought to myself "Bastard! but oh well it might not be that bad" and actually it turned out to me amazing, the previous nights downpour had melted alot of the snow on the mountains and the waterfalls where twice as many and twice as fast and powerfull as before - truly a sight to behold.

And thus we tracked for another few hours, through water puddles knee deep, ankle deep or simply about to flood the bridges we walked over, right down to done dry stretches with little Wekka birds wandering around searching for food (NZ birds are very friendly, just watch out for the Kea's [look at them on google and such, funny birds but with a bad set of habits!]).
This being said, my Aunty is a slave driver! After getting my 3 layers of socks soaked through I wanted to stop for a moment to empty it out, alas Sandy said "NO, its part of the experince and a waste of time, come on!" and I growled and said fine.
This was a bad idea... the waterproof sock I had on where sealing the water IN as well as OUT, so thus my socks had soaked up half of Milford Sound in them by the time we finished at Sandfly Point, not to mention making my feet twice as heavy and hurt twice as badly! But in the end it was all worth it - the track was amazing even if it was a killer, the sights as incredible as they are dangerous.

I may give the Kiwi's alot of shit, but damn they know how to find the good scenery.

Leg 1: Auckland - Go Day!

Well, on the morning of the day we leave I finally got a nice restfull sleep, I think my body clock has ajusted enough now that my sleep patterns arn't fooled by the time displayed on my computer! (Stupid thing is on Aus time, but I can't be bothered to change it)

In any case its just a matter of time now untill we pack up an head down to Queenstown and spend a couple of hours driving to reach our destination.

Weather looks like its going to be "cold" (APPARENTLY 15 C is cold... weakling Aucklanders!), but we are expecting at least one day of rain, which will be a pain but oh well - comes with the bushwalking idea.

However this will more than likely mean this is the last blog for a while, I won't be able to take my laptop while away so unless I find a place to log on while I am not here this will be the last untill I get back on about the 14th

Leg 1: Auckland - Preperation Days

Well nothing much of anything happened today, other than a "quick" drive across the island to visit one of my Aunty Sandy's friends who leave on a hill overlooking one of the larger beaches, and when I say large I mean large, this thing was easily a good five to ten kilometres long on the part I could see, but was probably double that end to end. It was a beautiful day though, shining and clear skies and barely any real wind.

The timezone difference has caught me out all ready, my body clock is still running on Australian time as the difference wasn't that big, hence I woke up at 8am Aus time, but it was 10am here... which was probably latter than needed it to be.

After visiting a friend of Allen's down at a beach on the wast coast (opposite side of the Island :o ) for a couple of hours and looking at the black sand, which is actually proper black - its apparently Iron-Sand, which makes it hotter and darker (well no duh, its black!) we came back to the house in Waiwera and relaxed for the day, so another day of preperation finishes without much happened, however come the 6th (the day we fly out) I think things will get a bit more hectic ;)

Leg 1: New Zealand - Auckland

Well I made it, in one piece amazingly enough, for a first solo international flight it was a piece of cake - the flight was comfortable and enjoyable, the service and meals nice and welcome, the drinks cold and refreshing and the inflight entertainment kept me amused the entire way with a good viewing of Transporter 3 (God I am a sucker for a good cheesy action flick :P)

May I say though, New Zealand, for all its Sheep Molesting untamed bruteishness is an amazingly beautiful place, the landscape is stunning and I haven't taken any pictures but in the morning I think I will take a couple of happy snaps so I can document what an amazing place this really is.
(Even if they do name all the cars wrong, its a Subaru LIBERTY nor a Legacy! silly Kiwi's...)

Ah well, the next couple of days should be good, get some of my time-grounding back and get sorted for the trip down south, but after the rigmarole of the International flights the local 1 hour 50 minutes from Auckland to Queenstown will be a breeze, and I am looking forward to getting back into Queenstown, its such an amazingly beautiful place and I can take pictures of my own of the Remarkables and the other spectacular places they have to offer down there.

For now I think another beer and a bite to eat before some rest will be a nice way to end a great day.