Wakeboarding in NZ

So despite the fact that it's late fall here and the lake is mostly mountain run off I have finally managed to get out for a wakeboard out on Lake Wanaka. Looking out on the flat lake every day has been painful. But, I finally met a nice couple with a boat so me and my friend Sam went out for a set this afternoon, here are a few pictures.



Andy

The Purple Cow

So for the past few weeks I have been staying at the Purple Cow hostel. It's a pretty friendly place with movies every night, free pool and ping pong, nice fire place, and lots of interesting people. But there are two that are particularly interesting, Phil the resident alcoholic and Smoky the hostel cat. Phil has been here for a few months now and acts like he owns the place. He has been traveling for the better half of seven years before now. He has a degree in psychology, is a certified dive master, can sky dive and paraglide, is a good pool player, and is definitely one of the smartest most interesting people I've ever met. Phil is on the right here.


The other is Smoky the hostel cat. He has been living in the hostel, for ten years now, longer than anyone else has been here. Even the current owners have only owned the hostel for 7 years. He roams around, steals peoples seats in front of the fire, irritates people for food at diner, and knows a way into almost every room in the hostel. But more than anything he will defend his territory if threatened. He has bit or scratched almost everyone in the hostel including myself in the first twenty minutes i was here.

Other then that Wanaka is great, should be moving out of the hostel into a place soon, and have a part time job cleaning lined up if need be.

Andy

So after well over a day in traveling I have finally arrived in Wanaka, New Zealand. The landscape is unbelievable, and looking out at the snow caped mountains is amazing.




I have a place in a hostle for the first few days. There are a few other people that are here for the season and with the snow getting lower on the mountains every day we are getting pretty excited.



I went out around town yesterday and checked out a bunch of the local shops and things around town. Unfortunatly no job offers just yet but I have been assured that it's simply cause it's the off season and come june there will be plenty of work.

Going to a land down under

So after some planning I'm taking off for New Zealand tomorrow.

I'll be gone for just under six months, spending most of my time in Wanaka and maybe a bit of traveling to some other places in the down under region (Australia, Tasmania, the Philippines, etc.) The trip will consist of working, lots of snowboarding, and lots of other adventures.


So I have been spending the last few days packing... here is all the stuff I was going to try to bring....















... after packing my snowboard bag it weighted in at 75 pounds (the airlines limit you to 50 pounds). So after cutting some stuff out and some creative packing I got everything down to two bags and my backpack.

So tomorrow at 5.20pm i will be sitting on a plane from Detroit to LA, I then fly from LA to Auckland NZ, finally after 26 and a half hours of traveling I will arrive in Queenstown New Zealand, oh then I take a shuttle from there to Wanaka.


Peace out northern hemisphere.