All Blacks Vs France in Dunedin

So before leaving for New Zealand I was advised if I had the opportunity I had to see the All Blacks New Zealand's rugby team. So after I heard they were playing France in Dunedin I had to go, even more so to support my French heritage. So I made the way down to Dunedin this weekend for the game.

Dunedin is a student town with a few museums, old buildings, a big campus, lots of bars and shops down town, farmers market, casino, and lots more. The first thing we saw in town was the Cadbury factory. Although seeing how the chocolate was made it wasn't that great as a lot of it is confined to big machines so you can't actually see that much, but the free and near free chocolate was well worth it.
Before the game we went out to one of the bars in the Octagon, which is the main down town area. Although we were surrounded by All Blacks supporters the French crowd were definitely more passionate. One Frenchmen even brought a rooster in support.
Although I don't know too much about rugby (there isn't much to know, get the ball to the other side or threw the big posts and you get some points) the game was still exciting. With the All Blacks reputation the French had some work to do. When only a few minutes into the game the French were the first on the score board I knew they would be alright, I even got a picture of the first tri.
The All Blacks managed to catch up in the second half but it wasn't enough as the french broke into the lead again and won the match.

After the game I headed to a party that Kevin, the couchsurfers I was staying with, had invited me to. It was a bit of a drive just out of town, but when I showed up they had a lit up mini ramp and a full DJ set up, with tents and a few fire pits. One of Kevin's room mates was DJing along with a band had also played. All in all it was a great experience and will have to try to make another trip there at some point.
Andy

Franz Joseph Glacier

So after a few weeks of searching I have secured a job, a house, and a free ski pass. This has given me a lot of free time to go on adventures, and just relax a bit. So last Saturday I spent the day with some new friends in the hostel listening to music, playing some guitar, playing cards, and generally just lounging around for the day. As the day came to an end my new friends Gabrielle and Joao convinced Nate and I to make the trip up to Franz Joseph Glacier with them.

So within a hour Nate and I had packed and we were on the road. Joao had a rented camper van so after an hour or so of driving... and stopping a few times to look out at the lake under the moon, and pick up some fire wood... we pulled off at a camp site ate some dinner and sat by our poor attempt of a fire, then piled into the van to sleep for the night.

Going to bed in darkness we had no idea what we were going to wake up to, to our surprise it was an amazing view of a river and surrounded by snow caped mountains. So after eating breakfast and sitting around playing guitar some more we were on the road again. The rest of the drive to Franz proved to be quite distracting as we seemed to make stops every 30 minutes or so. Some of which included some interesting rapids, a water fall coming out of the rain forest, and some stacked up rocks along the beach. In Canadian style I did my best to make one that resembled an Inukshuk.

After finally making it to the Franz we went out for the night in the only bar in town. Then the following day after Nate and I decided it wasn't worth paying to go on the glacier when we could go on one in Canada for free, we left the other two and made our way back to Wanaka

Andy

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.