Tuesday, January 09, 2007
RING IN 2007
why do my images look washed out and crappy in firefox on a mac? here's the answer
oh well, hopefully the images don't look washed out and crappy on your end and if you're on a mac, use safari for a moment.
where to begin? by now, many of you are familiar with this thing called couch surfing, right? ok. well, i've been playing host to some of these traveling couch surfers and meeting some really cool people along the way.
i hosted james and stephanie from chicago (who happened to be excellent guests that stayed with me for 3 days) and just as i was carting them off to the ferry terminal, another car load of wandering souls pulled up to the house. 15 minutes later, i was getting familiar with my 4 new friends, who, after some conversation and a night's rest, i spontaneously joined in their travels to the south island. why not, right...? i still had a week of free time staring at me. that's the three of them right below: marty, laure and ashley in the background.
the plan set out before me was to mill about the northern tip of the south island and then drift south down the west coast where i'd be dropped in grey mouth at which point i'd catch a shuttle back to picton and back across the gap to the north island.
we would be camping and hiking at various locations in and around the nelson region and along the west coast. to give you an idea of the seriousness of these people...after the first walk (which dang near killed me) i came to find out the distance was around 10 kilometers-mostly uphill (and i wasn't even wearing the HEAVY pack)! i didn't have the speed, but i had the stamina...that is, until the downhill where the knees tend to go wonky on me.
mutton cove is one of the campsites we hit early in the trip...located somewhere in the golden bay region if i'm not mistaken. we had the whole campsite to ourselves which was nice. we had slight rain drizzles but that didn't deter marty and me from getting a raging fire started. it was from this point on in the trip that i had this nice hickory smoked essence about me. still need to wash my rain jacket.
also here at mutton cove, i had a breakthrough with regard to being the picky eater that i am. laure and ashley were kind enough to whip up this amazing dinner of chicken, rice, mushrooms, broccoli (an amazing feat considering what utensils they had to work with). two of those ingredients i'd never normally insert into my body but the world changes after a nice 10k uphill trek - suddenly mushrooms and broccoli never looked so good. a little salt, a little pepper and it was tasty as! who'd have thought!?
waking up the next morning after being rained on all night left us with this view below. the only thing that could have made it any more enjoyable would have been to have a cup of coffee.
this particular track would weave back down and along the beach for a little while which is what you see in the image above.
just another of the many beautiful views we absorbed during our many walks. stopping during this torturous walk to take photos reminded me of a friend back in the day who, while getting a HUGE tattoo on his back took a bathroom break to escape the suffering he was experiencing. when he finished, he didn't want to leave the bathroom to go back to the chair for more pain. when he did finally exit the bathroom, the thought of more torture was still with him so he went outside and smoked a cigarette very, very slowly in an effort to extend his break from the enduring pain he was going through. i thought of him much during my walk. he persisted and ended up with a very cool tattoo.
that's marty capturing the moment above. i thought it wise to capture the moment of marty capturing the moment. that little hill to the right of marty is mt robert. we climbed it. the image below is from that walk, looking up at the gravel slippage and the cloud that eventually cleared. the image below that is just another view of mt robert from across the lake when we did a partial walk around the lake upon our arrival.
we eventually ended up along the west coast at one of the more popular and actually quite bizarre natural wonders...the pancake rocks located in Punakaiki. limestone at it's funkiest!
and a view out to sea at the same location...
the image below is for chris. when i saw the bus parked outside the noah's ark hostel, i laughed and couldn't resist.
from grey mouth i was picked up at 11am by atomic shuttles who had the lovely job of hauling my carcass all the way back to picton for the ferry at 10pm. it was going to be a long day indeed. i finished reading the book i took along which was nice. it was one of steve savage's travel books recounting his varied couchsurfing adventures. inspiring and an easy read. check out his nutty site: thesavagefiles.com
i had decided that i would walk back to my house from the ferry station since my wallet was flat on cash. upon my arrival back in wellington at 1am (i slept the entire three hours), i waited for my backpack to come off the ship then slapped it on and started walking. it would be a nice way to wind down a week of walking around the south island.
what i discovered is that i like wellington at 2am on a sunday evening. it's peaceful and quiet for the most part and i can honestly say, i don't mind cities when they're in this state. the image below was something i've never seen before because i'm not usually out walking the city at 2am. all told, the walk from the ferry to my house took somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours.
right at the very end of the walk as i was heading up the mt vic hill, i spotted a walking path (ie: shortcut) that i quickly diverted myself onto. by this stage, i'm sweaty and breathing heavy because i've got the pack on. after a little drink of water and the removal of the rain jacket i had had on...i decided not to follow the walking trail after all because it weaved back and forth in a zig zag fashion which made my trek that much longer. in my fatigue, i somehow recalled the shortest distance being a straight line and seeing that my house was on the direct opposite side of the hill from where i stood, i just did the logical thing and went for a mad scramble up the steep face, ignoring the trail altogether. it just felt right...one last bit of excitement before the 2 week holiday was over and the 'routine' began again.
it was a bit hairy at times due to the steep incline. i found myself grasping at grass and any other log, branch, or shrub that would give me more hold on the hillside. keep in mind, i had that pack on which was complicating things just a little, forcing me to adjust my lean and balance. in the end, success was mine and below is my sweaty proof. i was drenched but it felt gooooood. didn't hit the pillow till around 4am. i have to give a huge thank you to marty, laure and ashley for allowing me to ride their coattails for a week. i hope i wasn't too much of a burden.
why do my images look washed out and crappy in firefox on a mac? here's the answer
oh well, hopefully the images don't look washed out and crappy on your end and if you're on a mac, use safari for a moment.
where to begin? by now, many of you are familiar with this thing called couch surfing, right? ok. well, i've been playing host to some of these traveling couch surfers and meeting some really cool people along the way.
i hosted james and stephanie from chicago (who happened to be excellent guests that stayed with me for 3 days) and just as i was carting them off to the ferry terminal, another car load of wandering souls pulled up to the house. 15 minutes later, i was getting familiar with my 4 new friends, who, after some conversation and a night's rest, i spontaneously joined in their travels to the south island. why not, right...? i still had a week of free time staring at me. that's the three of them right below: marty, laure and ashley in the background.
the plan set out before me was to mill about the northern tip of the south island and then drift south down the west coast where i'd be dropped in grey mouth at which point i'd catch a shuttle back to picton and back across the gap to the north island.
we would be camping and hiking at various locations in and around the nelson region and along the west coast. to give you an idea of the seriousness of these people...after the first walk (which dang near killed me) i came to find out the distance was around 10 kilometers-mostly uphill (and i wasn't even wearing the HEAVY pack)! i didn't have the speed, but i had the stamina...that is, until the downhill where the knees tend to go wonky on me.
mutton cove is one of the campsites we hit early in the trip...located somewhere in the golden bay region if i'm not mistaken. we had the whole campsite to ourselves which was nice. we had slight rain drizzles but that didn't deter marty and me from getting a raging fire started. it was from this point on in the trip that i had this nice hickory smoked essence about me. still need to wash my rain jacket.
also here at mutton cove, i had a breakthrough with regard to being the picky eater that i am. laure and ashley were kind enough to whip up this amazing dinner of chicken, rice, mushrooms, broccoli (an amazing feat considering what utensils they had to work with). two of those ingredients i'd never normally insert into my body but the world changes after a nice 10k uphill trek - suddenly mushrooms and broccoli never looked so good. a little salt, a little pepper and it was tasty as! who'd have thought!?
waking up the next morning after being rained on all night left us with this view below. the only thing that could have made it any more enjoyable would have been to have a cup of coffee.
this particular track would weave back down and along the beach for a little while which is what you see in the image above.
just another of the many beautiful views we absorbed during our many walks. stopping during this torturous walk to take photos reminded me of a friend back in the day who, while getting a HUGE tattoo on his back took a bathroom break to escape the suffering he was experiencing. when he finished, he didn't want to leave the bathroom to go back to the chair for more pain. when he did finally exit the bathroom, the thought of more torture was still with him so he went outside and smoked a cigarette very, very slowly in an effort to extend his break from the enduring pain he was going through. i thought of him much during my walk. he persisted and ended up with a very cool tattoo.
that's marty capturing the moment above. i thought it wise to capture the moment of marty capturing the moment. that little hill to the right of marty is mt robert. we climbed it. the image below is from that walk, looking up at the gravel slippage and the cloud that eventually cleared. the image below that is just another view of mt robert from across the lake when we did a partial walk around the lake upon our arrival.
we eventually ended up along the west coast at one of the more popular and actually quite bizarre natural wonders...the pancake rocks located in Punakaiki. limestone at it's funkiest!
and a view out to sea at the same location...
the image below is for chris. when i saw the bus parked outside the noah's ark hostel, i laughed and couldn't resist.
from grey mouth i was picked up at 11am by atomic shuttles who had the lovely job of hauling my carcass all the way back to picton for the ferry at 10pm. it was going to be a long day indeed. i finished reading the book i took along which was nice. it was one of steve savage's travel books recounting his varied couchsurfing adventures. inspiring and an easy read. check out his nutty site: thesavagefiles.com
i had decided that i would walk back to my house from the ferry station since my wallet was flat on cash. upon my arrival back in wellington at 1am (i slept the entire three hours), i waited for my backpack to come off the ship then slapped it on and started walking. it would be a nice way to wind down a week of walking around the south island.
what i discovered is that i like wellington at 2am on a sunday evening. it's peaceful and quiet for the most part and i can honestly say, i don't mind cities when they're in this state. the image below was something i've never seen before because i'm not usually out walking the city at 2am. all told, the walk from the ferry to my house took somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours.
right at the very end of the walk as i was heading up the mt vic hill, i spotted a walking path (ie: shortcut) that i quickly diverted myself onto. by this stage, i'm sweaty and breathing heavy because i've got the pack on. after a little drink of water and the removal of the rain jacket i had had on...i decided not to follow the walking trail after all because it weaved back and forth in a zig zag fashion which made my trek that much longer. in my fatigue, i somehow recalled the shortest distance being a straight line and seeing that my house was on the direct opposite side of the hill from where i stood, i just did the logical thing and went for a mad scramble up the steep face, ignoring the trail altogether. it just felt right...one last bit of excitement before the 2 week holiday was over and the 'routine' began again.
it was a bit hairy at times due to the steep incline. i found myself grasping at grass and any other log, branch, or shrub that would give me more hold on the hillside. keep in mind, i had that pack on which was complicating things just a little, forcing me to adjust my lean and balance. in the end, success was mine and below is my sweaty proof. i was drenched but it felt gooooood. didn't hit the pillow till around 4am. i have to give a huge thank you to marty, laure and ashley for allowing me to ride their coattails for a week. i hope i wasn't too much of a burden.