The North Loop...

Well it has been a rather strange week and a half to say the least. After parting ways with my travel buddy, I realized, once again, that I was absolutely plan-less. When it comes to travel, I have always lived by the philosophy that the best plan is no plan because it leaves you open to any opportunity that may arise. You can leave anywhere, for anywhere on a moments notice and you have no strings attached. What a beautiful thing! Well it's a beautiful thing until you lose momentum, finding yourself stagnant and directionless, aimlessly wandering and spending your money without much of a plan of making any back. That's where I found myself after a week in Nelson. I LOVED the place and the people I met, but I decided it was time for a plan.

The "plan" I conjured up was to make my way south east, back down to Greymouth on the west coast, and catch the famous TransAlpine Train that crosses the country over to Christchurch. I had heard wonders about the scenery and had been told that it was definitely worth the price of admission. So I booked the cheapest ticket I could find and began my two day journey to Greymouth.

Arriving in Greymouth, I managed to find a rather... unique... hostel with animal themed rooms and creaky, narrow wooden staircases... creepy enough, but luckily I was able to camp in the garden behind the building for a discounted price. I wandered around the town and got uncomfortable, creepy vibes for the first time in New Zealand. I went for a walk to watch the sunset one night and managed to find parts of town I didn't want to be in by myself. I did, however, find the longest, most wonderful urban balance beam I have ever seen in my life :) Regardless, I was happy to jump on the train a couple of days later.

The Trans Alpine train was a really cool experience and definitely upheld its reputation as one of the most beautiful train trips in the world. I scheduled a one-night stop over in an amazing little town called Arthur's Pass. It's a very small town nestled in between mountains and full of amazing hikes and waterfalls. Before my train the following day, I was able to do several small hikes, check out some beautiful waterfalls and watch the Kea dive bomb people's lunches.

Kea: the only alpine parrot in the world. They are a decent sized, kind of aggressive bird known for stealing food, unzipping bags even to get to some grub, and picking apart window seals on cars and siding on buildings. They open up their wings revealing brilliant colors and a sassy attitude. I think they are hilarious and I love them (but I suppose I don't have car or house damage resulting from their shennanegans, or it might be a different story).

The rest of the train ride to Christchurch consisted of beautiful rolling hills, extraordinarily blue winding rivers that we crossed on ridiculously tall bridges, lots and lots of sheep and baby lambs (I want one) and expanses of farm land that reminded me of eastern Idaho and made me a bit homesick, to be honest.

In Christchurch, I have been lucky enough to stay with some wonderful family friends of my dear friend Jesse Howe, that live on the outskirts of the city. Charlie, Carol, their two kids Conrad and Catherine, and their greyhound dogs Zeek and Baloo have graciously welcomed me into their home and spoiled me rotten with a guest bedroom, home-cooked meals and the use of one of their road bikes.

I have spent the last week here biking into the city (navigating through city traffic on the left side of the road and signaling with my right hand being an adventure in and of itself), exploring the streets, meandering through the beautiful botanical gardens and witnessing the re-start attempts after the earthquakes that shook the city 3 years ago. The destruction is truly visible all through the city center and it is quite the wake up call to see how slow the recovery has been. Some really cool efforts have been made, however, such as the restart mall. There was a street full of shops and cafes that was completely destroyed in the quake, but they quickly replaced it with a mall built of shipping containers. Each building is artfully constructed out of these containers and it seems to have been a good way to get businesses... back in business quickly. There are also tons of murals that have been painted on the sides of buildings with colorful images and poetic notes that show a beautiful optimism.

I did take one day to go explore the French harbor town of Akaroa about 2 hours from Christchurch. Instead of swimming about with dolphins, taking a cruise or kayaking around the bay like most, I of course found myself up in the hills walking around chairs, chanting and meditating at the Christ college of Trans-Himalayan Wisdom and bush-wacking through bushes full of thorns on a ridiculous, but honestly, beautiful hike (photos below). If you want the full story, you'll have to email me because the story is worth a full blog post in and of itself...

Anyways, after this past week and a half of solo venturing and silly, somewhat awkward situations, I have finally found a place to settle down for the holidays. Tomorrow morning, I'll jump on a bus to Marlborough Sounds where I've found a job working at a lodge in exchange for accommodation for the next 3-4 weeks. It sounds like it's just what I need... nice and remote in a beautiful place, no spending money, some work to keep me busy and somewhere to unpack my back pack for a bit.

I'll keep you posted on the next leg of the adventure. Until then, I hope you all are happy and healthy and thoroughly enjoying life. I miss you all so much it's silly! You are in my heart and on my mind as always and I am sending so much love and all sorts of groovy vibes your way.

To infinity and beyond,

Alex

Longest urban balance beam in the world :) Greymouth

Arthur's Pass

Arthur's Pass

Kea!

Views from the Trans Alpine

And more stunning views...

Christchurch Botanical Gardens

Christchurch Cathedral

Christchurch

The view of Christchurch from the Fleischmann household

View of Akaroa from the hillside I scrambled up 

View of Akaroa

The Abel Tasman

A New Zealand Great Walk! One down, eight to go... I think.
It was certainly the most unique backpacking trip I've ever experienced. Here I was expecting that we would be out in the wild, walking along rugged terrain and occasionally running into other trampers on our strenuous trek. Obviously I didn't exactly do much research on the Great Walks because it was more like an international tramping highway with campsites that resembled visitor centers complete with running water and flushable toilets and sometimes even showers. It was nothing like I expected, but it was absolutely amazing. The trail went through forests, along beaches, through tidal crossings, up steep ridges and down into valleys.

We sea kayaked most of the way our first day, which was a really fun and interesting way to start off the trip. It was a beautiful view of the coastline and small islands that we would have otherwise missed, and it was tough!! Really strong winds and ocean waves made for a great work out, especially when we hit the 'red zone' on the map indicating the mad mile of rough sea. Once we got through that, we spent our time relaxing at the beach before the two hour hike to our first campsite.

Campsite #1 was quite non-descript, but we ate like kings that first night. And it is here that I confess... forgive me Backpacking Father, for I have sinned. We had no pack stove and, rather than eating snack foods for five days, we opted to pre-cook four meals for our dinners... which I didn't think was a good idea, but buckled in debate. These meals included one massive Tupperware of rice with veggies and two smaller tupperwares of pasta and veggies... which weighed probably somewhere near 10 lbs... dear God. Lukus also insisted on bringing a 1 kg block of cheese. Naturally, I made him carry the ridiculous masses of food while I carried all of the other snacks for breakfast and lunch. I will say that our meals were epically delicious (until we got to the pasta on the 3rd night, but I'll spare you the details).

We hiked the next two days in beautiful weather and made frequent stops at beaches for swimming and soaking in the sun. On day two, we got burnt to shit despite having re-applied sunscreen 3 times... but I suppose that's what you get for sitting on a beach in the sun for four hours underneath the hole in the ozone layer. The next day, our skin was miraculously browned instead of lobster red. hmmmm... but Ill take it.

On the evening of the third night, the clouds started rolling in and at about 6:00, our campfire was interrupted by an extreme pissing on by the Gods. The downpour continued all night long and all the next morning. It was a lovely sound to fall asleep to, but we were warned by rangers that the trails would be very slick and potentially dangerous. We had planned to continue further on day four, camp one more night and then circle back to our current location to catch the water taxi back to home base... but due to the rain, the warnings, the blisters on Lukus's feet, the attacks of the nasty little sandflies (my legs and feet look like a novel written in brail) and the fact that our food was starting to go bad, we decided to jump on the water taxi one day early. It was due to rain hard for the next few days anyways, so we figured it was best.

We ran along the beach with our gear to catch the boat that was fighting hard against the violent sea, wind and rain. Accompanied by about ten others, we waded out into the water and hobbled up the sketchy-ass ramp to the boat. This was all followed by an exhilarating, terrifying, hour-long jet boat ride where we got absolutely soaked through to the bone. The waves kept shooting up and soaking me and I could not stop laughing for anything. I hadn't had such a fantastic, make you stop breathing, make you cry, make your stomach hurt, make you pee a little (thank God I was soaking wet anyways) belly laugh in a while. I was overdue for one of those.

Now I'm back in Nelson. Travel buddy Luk and I are parting ways tomorrow and I'm thinking I'll stay here for a while and explore some more. I've signed up with WWOOF, so we'll see what opportunities may arise. I'll keep you posted on the next step once I figure it out. Until then, know you are in my heart and on my mind and I miss you all very much. So much love coming your way.

To infinity and beyond :)

Check out the link for more pics

More Photos on Facebook

Picture 1: Pancake rocks at Punakaiki
Picture 2: The last remains of the awe-inspiring sunset at Punakaiki
Picture 3: Travel Buddy jump shot with Luk

It's funny to think that I have only been in New Zealand for a couple of weeks. I have experienced so many different landscapes, met so many different people and meandered through so many different lifestyles that it feels as if I've been travelling for months. 

I began the New Zealand leg of my journey in Queenstown, adventure capitol NZ. It is here where one is extreme during the day and drunk at night... There are hundreds of different crazy attractions that can swoop you up, get your adrenaline pumping and drain your bank account in the time it takes you to free fall from a bridge to the water... which isn't very long, but I will say that the views and the landscape are breathtakingly beautiful. Flying into Queenstown was absolutely stunning, dropping into mountains that should belong to the Swiss Alps and landing in a nearly tropical setting with the largest, deepest, most incredibly blue lake my eyes have ever seen. I spent the following five days meeting wonderful fellow backpackers and doing the things that give me the ultimate high: hiking to the top of the gondola for the best view of the lakeside city, biking along the lake and attempting to capture it with my pen and paper as I had no camera, and jumping icy cold water on a sunny day. In a community with such extreme sports and activities, it was funny how people were shocked by my swimming in the cold lake... it's all perspective I suppose. 

Queenstown was beautiful, but not exactly my cup of tea, so when I found a note posted on a bulletin board with an offer to carpool further north, I jumped on it. Luk (my new Swiss travelling buddy) was heading north to the small town of Wanaka for a few days, then up to Franz Joseph Glacier and I joined him. In Wanaka, met up with a German girl, Corina, and we were able to join her at her couch surfing spot. We stayed for a couple of days with Andrew, his 5 year old son Jayden and his flatmate Grant, enjoying dinners together and jumping on their neighbor's trampoline. Was the universe conspiring? I think so. 

We then moved onward to Fox Glacier, picking up a wonderful Dutch hitch hiker, Pauline, along the way. Together, we explored this beautiful area surrounding a massive glacier that is unfortunately receding quite rapidly. We hiked through the woods, along the beach, towards the glacier, away from the glacier... all over the place. We watched sunsets and I had my first go at spinning fire at the Glow worm hostel. Yes, that's right. And I didn't even catch on fire. Checked that off of my bucket list!

Luk and I parted from the others and continued up to Punakaiki where we found the pancake rocks. Mmmmmmm so yummy for the soul. Massive rocks jutting out of the ocean and so beautifully carved into stacks of pancakes by the pounding of the waves. We camped out for a night (if you can call it camping... this campground had laundry, showers and a full kitchen with a Tavern around the corner) and watched the most amazing sunset that truly brought me to tears and inspired me with song. The violent waves of the Tasman Sea were so beautifully contrasted by the soft orange glow of the setting sun and the bright blue sky above it showing off its first star of the night. Yeah, chew on that for a minute. 

We finally made it to Nelson and it is from here that I am writing you. It's a big city with a small town feel and all sorts of little wonders to be discovered. I love it. I absolutely love it. We leave tomorrow, but I know I will be back and I will describe it more in depth when that time comes. But for now, we are headed to the Abel Tasman. We are about to embark upon one of the many Great Walks in New Zealand. It will be a 5 day trek along the north part of the south island's Golden Bay. We will kayak the first day and hike the rest. 

More details to come when I return. Until then, I'm sending you all so much love and this wonderful Kiwi energy. You are in my heart and on my mind and I hope that you're hearts are filled with absolute love, joy, happiness and gratitude. As I will be trekking on the occasion, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. 

To infinity and beyond :)

 

　
That first step was followed by a relaxing three days hanging out in Las Vegas with a truly wonderful woman, my Aunt Maria, eating Vietnamese food, hanging out in the sun and sleeping ridiculous amounts to beat the nasty cold I came down with the day of the first step. Maria is now on a trek deep in Nepal… what a groovy lady. My thoughts and vibes are with you Maria!!!

I then flew to Honolulu, HI where I was lucky enough to be able to crash on the dorm room floor of my good friend and parkour guru, Eli, and his roommate Brandon. We had a good wander about the busy city and watch a spectacularly bright orange sunset over the ocean. Thanks guys!

The following 9 days was spent with Jake (my amazing, wonderful, also quite groovy in a redneck sort of way, hunk of a boyfriend ) traveling along the east coast of Maui. I don’t think I can capture the experience in words so I’ll sum it up by saying it was an adventure full of camping, beach bumming, fruit picking, ukulele playing, star gazing, ocean swimming, sunset watching, sunrise on top of crater watching, people watching, TURTLE watching… a lot of watching… crazy Hana Highway driving, hiking, waterfall searching, more camping, followed by the hardest “I’ll see you later” I think I’ve ever experienced in my life…

I keep reminding myself of my favorite Winnie the Pooh quote “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

And now, I find myself in New Zealand, which is actually 7,855 miles away… with no plan, which I suppose is a new plan, and a whole lotta adventure ahead of me.

To infinity and beyond J


The First Step...

Was it Lao Tzu who said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step? I think I’ll expand upon Mr. Tzu’s poetic quote by saying that before that step comes the chaos of attempting to pay off bills, finish off various forms of employment… on good terms, arm wrestle with banks, spend quality time with family, friends, pets and loved ones and finish off projects that have been looming over your head for months and that you simply could not have tackled until the last moment anyway. That’s all not to mention the packing and unpacking, then repacking, ripping your hair out and then unpacking again only to find yourself in a puddle on the floor having decided that you’ve changed your mind and don’t really want to embark on this journey anymore because it was a stupid idea to begin with…

But then of course you do follow through, because you’re not a total chicken, and you find yourself in a tearful goodbye at the airport. All of a sudden you realize that your journey of a thousand miles is actually going to happen, as if you never really expected that it would. You turn from the tearful goodbye and then, you take the single step…

That was my experience anyways.