Picture dump from Piha Beach trip

Group pic "Point and laugh and Chuck's penis!" (behind the camera)































View from Information centre in Waitakere Ranges










































Kitekite Falls (this is where I broke my camera)









































Piha Beach and Lion Rock.. I've got some good pics from up top, just waiting for some people to send them/upload to facebook!





























formatting this is frustrating me right now but you can see the rest of the pics if you have facebook @ facebook.com/NomadsFatCamelHostel. I also picked up a new camera + a cellphone today, so hopefully there will be pics in my next posts :).

Peace & Love

The James comes out at night...Discos don't open 'till after dark

As I said previously, there is a bar at the ground level of the hostel and that is where most people convine to figure out the nights plans or just stay there. The best part about the bar is that they are always trying to give away free pitchers/drinks/bar tabs/trips through various games and things. It is a pretty fun time most nights.

On my first night here I went down to the bar with a couple of people and we hung out for a while, and then I started to make my rounds and talk to some people. One of the girls that works here is a SIA (Stuck in Auckland), she said she came out here to give her inspiration for her writting. She said she's writing a SciFi trilogy so I was instantly interested. She went on to describe what the premise was, and how quamtum physics, multiverses, and super powers were all a part of the story; I told her not to give anything else away because I wanted to read them. I stayed and chatted to her for quite a while, we talked about time travel, quantum physics, the meaning of life, and various other topics...oh she's from a small town in Idaho by the way (WHHAATTTTT?).

Then I ended up meeting this guy from Toronto, he goes to UofT and is studying neuroscience, he's also a bit of a Sambo master (Russian grappling martial arts, not black people). He actually lifted me up over his head and spun me around, and he is about 5'6 150lbs, but that is later on in the story. By this time the people I came with had left and the bar was closing up shortly, this is what hostel life is about. If the friends you came with are leaving or something, just make new friends. Anyway, we had a dope conversation about the human brain, neuroscience, and other various things. He was quite suprised I found that stuff interesting, he said most people just smile and nod. Once the bar closed he headed out to another bar, but once we got there it closed as well, I found out about the martial arts thing in this bar. As we were walking out he was trying to explain to be what Sambo was and he just said "...it would be easier if I just show you" and he grabs me, lifts me up over his head and starts spinning. Now at this I'm thinking..how is this tiny fellow doing this, and am I about to smash my face into the ground. But he did it and put me down safely so I was pretty impressed.

I was in a group of five people and three went to another bar while my Toronto friend and I started hunting for eats. As we're walking down the street we continue talking about martial arts and such. We get onto the subject of Kapawara (brazillian martial art) and then we proceeded to do Kapawara in the streets of Auckland..it was about 2-3am at this point though so no danger was involved. THEN (this is the best part)....he goes.."hey watch this"..he walks up to a pole, grabs in and holds him self up horizontally for a few seconds and jumps down. I had to get him to do it again so I could snap a pic with my phone, didn't turn out too well but it will jog my memory. Anyway, we couldn't find any food so we just went back to meet up with the others at the bar...the night just winded down after that. That bar closed then we just got some street meat (White Lady burgers....MMmmm)and went back to the hostel.

AND THAT WAS JUST THE FIRST NIGHT...

I only have 8 mins left on my interweb so I might just go to McDs and write my next post on my phone. Stay tuned for Pub Crawl - $5, 4 different bars, 1 free drink at each, and about 100 hostelers.

Peace & Love

Hostel Life

There are a few types of people who are in hostels, after being here for a few days now I am starting to figure them out.

Just passing through - These are the people who stay for about 1-3 nights and escape early in the mornings, they are dedicated travelers or have already been to this city and just using it as a home base. They have a plan and they are sticking to it. These are normally older people, groups of girls, etc.. the organized ones.

Just passing through?? - These people think they are just passing through, but end up staying for months. They had a plan and now it's gone, flights missed, buses missed, good times had. I'm afraid this might happen to me, but we'll see.

Stuck in Auckland - These people could have been at one point Just passing through, then turned to Just passing through??...but now they are completely broke and stuck in Auckland, either working for accomodations or sleeping in common areas and bumming it. These are the best people to meet. They've been here for a long time and they know their way around. They also have ZERO dollars so they know how to scam things like food to survive (the hostel provides one free meal a day at dinner).

Random old dude - Not really much to say here...It's a random old dude, normally smells like booze and cigs and wearing some sort of strapped back hat.

And then there are people like me who are just here to watch it all and do some traveling while I'm at it. Just taking it day by day and seeing what comes up.

I was having a discussion the other night with two of my Stuck in Auckland friends and one dude I had met that day, that guy would need his own post to himself though...for real (Sidenote: one of the Stuck in Auckland guys is basically a Brett, I wish I had my camera so I could take a pic of him, even the way he acts reminds me of Brett..this guy is super awesome), we were talking about the dynamics of hostels and how random people from around the world can just meet up and become instant friends. For example, a guy named Roy came into the dorm I was staying in, we chatted for about 4 mins before he offered me a spot in the car he's renting and taking down to the South Island. I wasn't ready to leave when he was so I had to decline, but it was a pretty random/awesome invitation. There is a bar attached to the hostel, so everyone just goes down to the bar at night and meets everyone else, it's quite a cool thing. I guess this is what it's like to live in a dorm at Uni, but way cooler because everyone has travel stories and routes to discuss.

Initial questioning normally goes like this:

What's your name?
Where are you from?
How long have you been in Auckland/New Zealand?
How long have you been traveling?
Is this your first stop?

And then BAM, you are instant friends. It's really quite amazing, but I guess to want to travel you have to be a very open person anyway. It's just funny how fast it happens, and how genuine the friendships are. Like we are all in this together, so we might as well be friends.

Peace & Love

R.I.P Camera.....

So here it is, the week that was....

On Tuesday I went to Mission Beach for the day on a group trip. It was beautiful, there is a volcano right across the water and lots of small surrounding islands. It was about 20+ degrees and no clouds, really fun day, got to play a little volleyball and show off my amazing skills. Also, a lady from the NZ Herald came by and took some pictures of us for some "fun in the sun" piece or something (this most likely got cancled due to the earthquake). It was $5 for the bus + we got food, so it was quite nice.

Wednesday I woke up around 4-5am because some girls in my room were leaving early. And when you have four bunk beds in a tiny room, anytime anyone does ANYTHING you wake up. I tried going back to sleep but could only keep trying until about 8am (Sidenote: the dorm I'm staying in is extremely hot, 8 people + small room = sauna of stench). Anyway, it was a good thing I was up that early because I met a girl in the kitchen who told about a free bus tour of Auckland that day. Bonus level...I got to see the Museum, which is in the middle of a "Domain" (park) and sitting on a hill, it looks very opulent. Also got to see some sail boats and go over a nice bridge which has a small "beginner" type bungy, only 43 ft or so (Sidenote: you can basically base jump/bungy off of anything you want here it's amazing). The bus driver had never done the route before so we kept getting lost and one of the girls I was with was getting mad and trying to direct him around, lulz.

Yesterday I took a group trip out of the city and into an area owned by the native people (can't remember which tribe), they don't allow any city buses up there only the tour I was on and one other tour. This was by far the most beautiful place I've seen yet. We saw the Waitakere Ranges and walked around in the rainforest, which was mostly just replanted trees because the English (obviously) raped the forest by damming the water fall and then letting the water build up and take all the trees down and washed them out to their boats. In the rainforest are the Kitekite falls, we got to swim at the bottom of the falls and at the top, no jumping down though (suprisingly). This is when I jumped into the water with my camera and wallet still in my pocket, I hope the pictures I took before are still alright on my memory card, but the camera it self is finished (5 years strong, you will be missed camera). I was having such a good time though I didn't really mind.

After the falls we went to Piha Beach. It's a surfing beach, and the waves were pretty nice that day (maybe a touch windy) but no surfers were out. At Piha Beach is Lion Rock, which is pretty much an enormous rock you can walk up. The view from up there is AMAZING, there are some beach side properties (about $1 mil+ each) and it's surrounded by the mountain ranges, it's pretty awesome. I exchanged Facebook with some people on the trip so I will be able to show you some pictures once I get them sent to me. Everyone was very nice about letting me take pictures with their cameras and such <3.

And finally, today I'm not doing anything during the day! I'm going on a 2.5 day surf lesson trip this weekend. I can't remember the name of the place (all the names are in Mauri), but I do know it's meant to be very secluded and nice. And we'll be staying in little cottage type dorms on the beach which should be sweet.

So yea, basically that was my first week here, a fun filled extravaganza.

Peace & Love

If traveling by plane was a sport, I'd be throwing touchdowns

First off, I'd like to start by saying this is costing me $3 an hour. So if it's a bit helta skelta and short formed, you understand why :)

Travel Log:

- Woken up 1 min before my alarm.....-_-"..the culprit will remain nameless...
- 1 min later my alarm goes off; shower, final check, let's gooooo
- Arrive at airport around 9:30am, chill with the fam jam for a while before departing
- Left Toronto at 12:30pm February 19th
- Watched Wall Street + (some other movie I CANT remember right now) + slept for 2 hours (half of that was a flight delay) = Flight OVER...baby games
- Arrived at LAX around 7:00am...I think
- I wasn't allowed to leave the Terminal area so I couldn't get to see any famous people. However, contrary to what I heard I was let out in the Terminal that I needed to be in for my transfer. I had previously heard it might be a two hour trek across the airport.
- Wondered around/ate/read the paper for a few hours (my lay over was shortended because my first flight was delayed)
- Hop back on the plane and settle RIGHT IN to a 10 hour marathon sleep.... the flight from LA to Auckland, NZ is about 12 hours. So, basically I beastmoded it, woke up to eat a little bit (shout out to the German couple sitting beside me, gave me their deserts and cheese...I guess I look hungry?) and then the flight was over.


That sense of reliefe when you finally see your bag come out of that never ending hole of luggage is indescribable. After I got my bag and went through a bunch of checks (they REALLY do not want you bringing in foreign food/drink/bugs/animals), I went down to i-SITE and booked my hostel room. While I was getting my bus ticket into the city and getting some general info from the dude, this guy beside me offers me like 4 beers out of a plastic bag (old dude, mad sketch, I'm assuming he drank the other 8) because they wouldnt let him bring them on the plane. I'm not sure why he was in the travelers help centre and he was getting on a plane....I told him to chug them and have a great flight.

Note worthy so far:

- I was so cold from the time I got on the plane in Toronto up until I got off the plane in NZ. Airplanes + airports are TOO cold, rediculous.
- Rain has been following me so far, when I got to LA it was raining really hard then when I get to NZ it's over cast and drizzly
- NZ is HOT and HUMID (at least the North Island), as soon as I got here I had to put shorts on
- The architechture is pretty wacky, all the houses I saw had spanish villa type roofs and the buildings in the city are pretty cool looking (my camera is dead right now but I'll have some pics tomorrow I guess)
- Since I got here I've walked around a little to try and find some cheap food. I'm going to go out again after this and get some lunch. Not sure what else I want to do today, I was planning on sleeping for most of the day but I had that 10 hour marathon.

That's all for now.
Peace & Love

FAQ

Why are you doing this? Are you out of your mind?

First of all, I'd like to express to you my deepest sympathies. Being confined in your own mind all the time must be exhausting and monotonous.

I've been trying to come up with a lengthy philosophical answer to this question, mentioning life changing experiences and learning about new cultures, but I normally just say "Why not?" or "I have nothing else to do".

I'm pretty sure traveling is just something people in my family do. There was no other option after hearing about some of the trips my cousins were taking, I had to do it too. And once I found out you could get an AROUND THE WORLD ticket I pretty much made up my mind. I think that was about two or three years ago and now here we are. After graduating Uni. I worked for about 8 months (2 separate jobs, with a 2 week trip to London + 2 weeks at home in between...not trying to work too hard) to save some money and then started planning my trip. I started in September, so it took me a while, but I got around to it.

Are you going to be working?

I don't think I'll be actively looking for any jobs or anything until I need to. I heard you can just work at hostels without visas or ANYTHING.....(lul). But if I stumble upon something cool I might be interested.

Are you anxious/nervous/scared?

Yes a little bit, mostly when I'm going to bed and thinking "I won't be able to sleep like this for a while"...if you've ever been in my bed you understand, I use 100 pillows and 100 blankets all strategically placed, its complex.

Other than that, I'm a bit apprehensive about entering a country where I don't speak the language and they don't use the Latin alphabet. But I will have to deal with that as it comes.

I came to a crossroads during my planning period where I asked myself if this was what I really wanted to do. It came down to starting my working life, moving out, and all of that or traveling until I get tired of it. It didn't take much convincing as I am an expert on my life and had all my facts and figures in order.

What are you going to do? Won't you be bored?

I'll be staying in hostels mostly, so I'll be meeting people and finding out what they are up to. Also some hostels provide information for adventure trips and things like that. But aside from that I wanted to find out what the people in the city/town were about, in terms of music, food, and enjoyment.

And if all that fails, I love people watching and just being outside, I'm sure I won't run out of either so I should be set.

Are you going to get any souvenirs from your destinations?

I decided (if I remember) that I want to collect news paper headings from all the places I go, because:

1) I enjoy information, so I'll probably be reading the paper anyway.

2) Easily stowed in an envelope in my bag

I'll pick up other cool stuff if it can fit in my bag or clip on or something. Maybe I'll get a tattoo of each countries flag as I arrive..Ha.

Are you going to miss me?

Probably at first, but I'm sure I'll get over it. We'll always have this blog and twitter (and skype if you're lucky). I fully expect a few days worth of crying though; hopefully not consecutive days.

Your blog is so boring looking, what gives? Didn't you take this in school?!

Well kids, I did have to do some web design in school so I am well aware of the things I could do. However, I'm extremely lazy and again a master of my own psyche, so it was easy to convince myself not to go any further with the design.

Also, I am trying to keep it as mobile friendly as I can, as there are some devices that don't have a mobile version of Blogger made for them. Plus, if you're at work it looks much less suspicious if you are looking at a plain white page with text as opposed to a dark background with a large banner...I'm really just looking out for the viewers interests here.

What?

Here is what I'm bringing:

(Click to enlarge...I didn't want to resize, wannafightaboutit?)

- Backpack + detachable day bag (Canadian flag courtesy of my mother). I think this was a medium sized bag, not sure the actual size. There is also a compass + thermometer (with wind chill factor chart on the back) on the zipper

- Waterproof jacket

- 2 weeks-ish of clothes. (Long sleeve shirts, shorts, pants, etc. Underwear and socks not pictured)

- 2 bandannas (All the sites I read told me to bring bandannas, not sure why.... and I'm a bit of a hipster. #ArcadeFire)

- Sunglasses, I have terrible sunglasses.

- International plug adapters (that little black bag)

- Silk sleeping sack (white ball)

- Camera charger

Not pictured:

- Camera (lul)

- MedKit (it's pretty boss, THANKS MOM!)

- Toiletries (Tons of small shampoos + soaps, 3 toothbrushes, 4 small toothpastes, various pills, and some other stuff)

- Small microfiber towel

- Water shoes

- Lightweight hiking shoes

- Awesome hat

- New Zealand + Australia Lonely Planets

- Some books

- +some other cool stuff (Documents, ID, etc)

I think that's all. I basically just Googled "How to pack for around the world trip" and opened up about five of them and compiled what I thought I needed. Even though I will be traveling mostly in warmer weather I still opted to bring long sleeves/pants, for bugs and such (not trying to get DAT malaria).

Initial Ramblings

I told myself I wouldn't start posting here until I actually purchased the ticket, and that day has finally come. ~$6,485 later...here I am posting. February 19th is the day that I chose to depart, for no particular reason really, and I *should* be returning on December 1st.

Now it's on to the next step, a going away celebration. Being the reclusive, anti-social, loner, and anxiety ridden human that I am this thought for some reason is making me more nervous than actually leaving (probably because my anxiety is queued and releases in succession). But, I'm sure I'll get over it and it will be nice to see everyone before I go etc.

On to the good stuff here is my itinerary so far:


New Zealand (Auckland -> Bay of Islands -> Rotorua -> Taupo -> New Plymoth -> Wanganui -> Wellington -> Nelson -> West Coast Glaciers -> Jackson Bay -> Queenstown -> Aoraki (Mt. Cook) -> Christchurch)
Australia (Perth -> Fremantle -> Rottnest Island -> Denham -> Coral Bay -> Exmouth -> Broome)
Singapore (TBD)
Bangkok (From here I want to travel around S.E Asia, but still TBD)
Delhi (TBD)
London (From here I want to travel around Europe [eastern + southern], but still TBD)

I'll be in each place for 2 months (except Singapore, only 3 weeks), but I can change the dates whenever I want for free. So if you have any input for the places not yet "routed" let me knowwwwwwwww. I am open to all suggestions.

Also, I'd like to make some procedural posts about what I packed and how I planned some routes etc. but I am too lazy to do that today. Pics and things will be there too.

"Let's get this party started!" -Kobe "Bean" Bryant

Peace & Love