Sunday, April 29: Abel Tasman

Staying up until 4:30am was rather painful at 6:00am when I woke up. We (Nir, Nadav, Ben, Gilad (another dude that's been traveling with Nir and Nadav) and myself) had one more person in our kayaking goup - her name is Maria, and surprisingly she is Israeli as well..

The way this works is that we take a bus from Nelson for about 1hr, then a water taxi (a name for a small boat) another 30 min to the starting point. Then we kayak for a few hours, and are picked up by a water taxi for another 15 min ride, and finally a bus back to Nelson.
The kayaking was quite fun especially in light of the good weather. The views were very pretty and we got to see a whole bunch of seals. In the first half of the day, I learned that one can get sea sick from a kayak. There's no doubt now - I'm neither a bird nor a fish.
Lunch was provided by the tour guide, and since we have Nir and Nadav in the group it was clear that everything would be cleared. The water taxi back thought he a jet boat, and did quite a few fancy stuff, which was rather fun.

Dinner section: Since the next day the bunch are going to the north island and we'd be separating, so we figured we'd have a good last meal (better than what Jesus got for sure). So steaks, mash potatos, and mashroom cream souce was agreed upon. Very good as always.

The evening was concluded by a yaniv session, where I came in last (it was bound to happen eventually).


PICTURES: I have posted new photos at: http://www.ist.caltech.edu/~idaniel/Data/NZ%20Pics/ where the relevant file is "April 11-29.zip". It also includes a video of feeding a Kea.

Saturday, April 28: Nelson

Since breakfast is free (and ends at 9:00), I didn't get much sleep. The first half of the day was spent/wasted trying to figure out what we all wanted to do for Abel Tasman. Ultimately, we decided on a kayaking trip. The weather has been crappy and will continue to be, with the exception of the next day.

At 14:00 I went for a movie "Shooter", which was pretty good. After that there wasn't much day left so we did the plan/cook/eat dinner thing. Given how crappy the bar thing was the other day we decided to stay in and do a "Yaniv" session. We got an extra couple of girls (Irish and English) to spice things up. Ultimately, due to some cheating (and extreme luck) the Irish won the game (I came in second with 9 consecutive rounds of winning at the end - but that wasn't quite enough...).

A couple of folks retired after that and Nir, Ben, Me, and English girl (oh well, her name's Georgia - go figure), stayed up until 4:30 am, which was rather bad since the three of us had to wake up the next day at 6:00am for the kayaks. Yet another sleepless night - those seem to be accumulating.

Friday, April 27: Nelson

The original plan for today was to start the Abel Tasman. Unfortunately, the weather was crap (continuous rain), so we canceled. I can't say I felt too bad about it - I'm fine with taking it easy for a day.

We started the day with a Yaniv session. The funny part about it was that Nadav possibly broke an all time record by loosing 93pt in one round (out of 95 possible points when 4 players are playing). Those who know how to play the game can imagine how it cracked us all up.

I can't quite remember, for whatever reason (sleep deprivation?), what I did until the evening. It's probably not important. Anyway, in the best tradition of Queenstown, we went for yet another one of those cooked dinners. Nir and Nadav, being the cheap asses that they are (they're not really. Well, just a little..:) , gave Ben and I an $8 budget per capita. It was fine.

Again - evening was spent at the pub. Unlike yesterday, I managed to go to bed at 4:30am. So things are getting worse.

Thursday, April 26: Westport - Nelson

This was not a particularly eventful day. We left Westport and drove to Nelson (some 200km). Before getting to Nelson we had to decide where to go: Nelson or another place 50km north of Nelson where one can start Abel Tasman from (this is a kayaking/walking track). We were planning to finally hook up with Nir and Nadav. Anyway, we haven't heard from them, so we decided to go to Nelson. Surprisingly enough, we ran into the two dogs at the backpacker. In the mean time they have been traveling with another two folks: Gilad and Andrei. So the now we're 6 people causing trouble.

Other than that, I finally got to try a Sticky Fingerz burger. Some American dude claimed it was the best one in NZ, and that the Ferburger in Queenstown came second. However, he had no clue what he was talking about. Right after that we went for a movie, after not hacving been to one in ages. "Pathfinder" - it's ok.

As is usually the case when the group is together - the evening consists of going out to the local pub. And so, as in Queenstown, I'm back to the "go to bed at 3:00am schedule". Only problem is that there's free breakfast that ends at 9:00am...

Wednesday, April 25: Avalanche Peak (Arthur's Pass) - Westport

So today we did Avalanche Peak, which is similar to the Muller Hut track in that it is short in distance but has quite a steep inclince. Specifically, the altitude gain is nearly 1100m (737m to 1834m) in a 3km distance. It took us 2:40 to get up and 2:05 to get down . The peak was very beautiful despite the fact that the weather was cloudy on one side. At the peak we fed a kea (this is a parrot-like bird, slightly bigger that seems to have little fear of humans). I'll try to post some feeding pictures..

We separated from Anna at the top where she found a couple of guys with whom to go back to Chrischurch. We continued to Westport some 200km northwest.

Ok, this entry will also include a dinner section for the simple reason that tonight we had the best dinner yet: Steaks (400gr x 2) with mashroom cream souce, red Kamora potatos (this is a NZ type potato: it is sweeter than the usual potato and less sweet than the usual sweet potato and is very very good), beans, and Israeli salad. Loads of food, which was extermely good and like the pigs that we are, we finished it all...

Tueday, April 24: Springfield - Arthur's Pass

The plan was to leave early in the morning and get three things done:

1. See the big boulders some 20km west of Springfield towards Arthur's Pass (I've already been there)

2. Do Cave Stream - a 40 minute walk in a cave with freezing water (already did that)

3. Main attraction - Do the Avalanche Peak track in Arthur's Pass

We did 1 and 2, and then realized there would be no more time for three, so we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day and do nothing (one of my favorite activities).

Our backpacker for the night is in Arthur's Pass,is without a doubt the best one I've been to. Very clean and very nice. A really great place to do some serious cooking. Only trouble is - no supermarker with 1.5 hour drive radius. What a bummer!

In the evening, I played some backgamon with Ben (7:3 for the Marcos) and then Ben, Anna, and I played some Yaniv, which was rather amusing, in light of Anna's early enthusiasm due to her being in the lead (at first). Ultimately, she came in last, I second and Ben first.

Monday, April 23: Christchurch - Springfield

A rather boring day. Most of the day I spent on the internet burning some photos from my card and stuff like that. Also, I got round 2 of Hep A an Hep B Vaccine. One more round to go.

We left in the evening towards Arthur's Pass, this time in the hopes that the weather would be good so that we may go up Avalanch Peak, which is a day track similar to Muller Hut track (i.e., 1km in altitude in a 3km long track). It's not clear where and when we'll hook up with Nir.

Sunday, April 22: Muller Hut - Christchurch

Woke up early (6:30) to catch the sunrise. It was rather lovely. What was much more impressive, however, was the fact that the whole space between the various mountains was filled with a huge cloud. It seemed as if we could do skydiving from there.

We also went up a little higher on a small excursion to Mt. Olivie (or something similar I forget), which was the tallest spot to which we could go. There, we did our flag waving photos. Anna, wanted a similar photo, so to get the dutch flag we wore the respective colored T-shirts (red, white, blue).

The way down was uneventful, other then it being unpleasant. As we got to the car I couldn't find my car keys. Then I realized that I left them in the door so that it would be easy for anyone to still the car. Fortunately, no one did.

We proceeded to Christchurch - some 330 km, and arrived there around 20:00. It has been a rather long day, so we were all pretty tired and we decided to spend the next day in Christchurch. The problem is that we were going to meet Nir at Arthur's Pass tomorrow, and he was not happy about postponing. It is not clear what will happen.

Dinner - Perhaps I should have a separate daily entry for dinner as it seems to be occupying much of my attention. Anyway, due to an exorbitant amount of chocolate and ice cream intake in the last few weeks, we (Anna and I - Ben strictly objects) have decided to try to be more healthy about our food. So dinner consisted of Israeli salad, stir fried salad, and baked potatoes (Ben's touch..). The backpacker's kitchen was awful - appliances weren't functional etc. So I decided it was fair to "borrow" the best bloody knife I've seen in this country, which was there...

Saturday, April 21: Twizel - Muller Hut

Before driving north to Mt. Cook (tallest mountain in NZ) national park, we had to figure out our flag situation. The plan was to have the flag up on the top of the mountain, however, the package my parents sent me, which included a flag, was not yet in my possession. So, we decided to make our own flag (much like the good old soldiers in Eilat in 1949). To this end we stole a pillow case from the backpacker (it's ok, they didn't let us use the USB), we bought paint and there it was a little while later: a self made Israeli flag. Turned out pretty good too..

and headed up to Muller Hut. The walk is about 2km long (so the DOC claims) and gains about 1km in altitude. So it's pretty damn steep. The plan was to get up there (spend the night there of course) and cook a good gullash dinner (more details about this). It took a few hours to get up, at which point it started getting a bit cold (we started the whole thing rather late at 13:30).

The view from the hut was splendid! All around there were snowy mountains. Quite breath taking. Furthermore, there were avalanches happening all the time on the nearby mountain, which sounded like thunders and it was quite spectacular to view them.

Dinner was not as we expected. As it turned out Ben forgot to bring the meat. So much for gullash. What was also bad, was the fact that the bread was molded (I'm still not clear on how this happened), and along with the meat was the peanut butter. I was planning on brining beans, but decided not too, as I figured we had enough food... So we ended up eating rice, which ended up being burned. Not the best meal to say the least.

At the hut there were a total of about 12 people including us. Among them 2 Israelis, 2 Dutch, a Kiwi, and a few other folks.

We went to bed rather early (22:30) so as to be able to wake up early and catch the sunrise.

Friday, April 20: Dunedin - Twizel

This day started badly. As I was heading out of town I passed through a dark yellow light... Unfortunately, an unmarked police vehicle was right behind. So there went $150... Nothing as exciting happened for the rest of the day. I had talked to Ben the day before and he mentioned that he met an Australian girl and a Dutch girl, who will be joining us. Upon my arrival to Twizel, it appeared that the Australian couldn't make it. At least we had the Dutch (Anna his her name).

Twizel is a small little crappy town with a population of 200 roughly. We tried to charge Ben's iPod using a USB port, but no one in town seemed to be willing to let us use their USB. The best response was at our hostel, where the bitch (pardon - "lady") said she had to ask her boss, who was out for a funeral and wouldn't be back for three days! (My my, they take their dead very seriously down here). Anyway, some guy at a shop was very nice about it, and solved our problem.

Dinner - having joined Ben has its advantages. Back to good food. Tonight was meetballs night. Pretty good.
After that two games of Yaniv one game of BS.

Thursday, April 19: Dunedin

So Dunedin is a college town, and most Israelis are very impressed with the night life around here. As expected, it is somewhat similar to Ann Arbor, though somewhat bigger I think, and thus student life is less pronounced. I spent today doing three things:
1. Sending my final paper version to ISIT conference
2. Visting the chocolate factory - interesting.
3. Checking out the steepest street in the world - pretty cool. I drove up with my piece of shit car, and it made it !!

In the evening I met up with Dan - an American dude that I met on the Routeburn track. I hung out with him and a few of his buddies. Nothing too exciting.

Wednesday, April 18: Invercargill - Dunedin

Another day on the road. After checking Tristan's school (the place he teaches), I headed towards Dunedin on the scenic Catlins road. First, headed south to Bluff, which is the southern most town if you will. Then did my way to Dunedin. The Catlins is a beautiful road (it's all green), with many attractions and view points along the way. I stopped at Waipapa point, which is a beach were 131 folks lost their lives in 1881, in the largest shipping disaster. There lay a sea lion. Also, there was a fearless bird, who bit my finger! I also stopped at Slope Point, which is the southern most point in the south island.

I arrived in Dunedin at night and stayed at a pretty cool backpacker, where surprisingly I met again Amy, whose been in the same backpacker back in Queenstown.

Tuesday, April 17: Te Anau - Milford - Invercargill

Today was a long day. The weather was great so I decided to had back to Milford and do the cruise. That's a problem since it's in the wrong direction from where I wanted to go (Dunedin). Left Te Anau at 9:50 towards Milford. it's 136km north. I picked up a couple of American hitchikers (Elizabeth and Desiree). Of course I missed the 11:30 cruise, and ended up getting the 12:25 cruise. The cruise was beautiful! Amazing fiords, lovely views.

The two hitchhikers also drove back with me to Te Anau. As we got out of Milford there was another hitchiker (his name is Tristan) and I picked him up as well. He is a local school teacher from Invercargill, who just finshed the Milford track (he sneaked in there and slept in the open). It was clear that I was not going to make it to Dunedin, so I decided to only shoot for Inevrcargill (about 180km from Te Anau eastbound), and Trsitan offered his place for lodging (he shares a house with two housemates). Again, dinner was a feast: pasta with meat sauce, salad, and my first shakshuka flying solo (turned out ok, but there's certainly room for improvement).

Friday - Monday, April 13 - April 16: The Milford Track

Day 1 - Friday:

The weather was fairly crap, which lead to reconsider whether I wanted to go on the Milford Track. Eventually I decided to go and let destiny determine the outcome. This first day was not special in any way. I took a bus some 25km north of Te Anau to Te Anau Downs. Then a boat to the beginning of the track. The area is called "Fiordland" as it has many fiords. At the boat bording place I met 5 American exchange students, in no particular order: Anna, Heather, Jake, Joel, and Karen. After the boat there was a 5km walk to the first hut.

A few words about the Milford Track: It is supposedly easier than the Kepler or Routeburn. Indeed the terrain is easier, however, since I was doing it alone, I ended up using my large backpack, which weighed a ton and made the whole things quite a bit more challanging.

The evening in the hut was interesting. I played cards (Yaniv) with the Americans. Team Israel (me) won the game. For the first time I got to get those 50pts you get when hitting 100... What was interesting about this evening was the fact that a couple of the Americans were singing some songs that invovled Jesus. It made me wonder. The evening ended with them asking me if I wanted to join their praying. I chose to observe, rather than actively participate. Quite interesting. Long story short - they goi to Bible school. Oh Yea!
I learned from my experience in the Routeburn that Nutella gets hard in the morning because of the cold, so it's hard to spread it on bread (which is my breakfast). The solution was obvious: Sleep with the Nutella. Works like a charm.

Day 2 - Saturday:

Last night's prayers were surely answered. The weather was brilliant. No cloads, no rain. The walk was a 16.5km walk, with lovely views of mountain on both sides (as the walk is in a valley). Gorgeous day indeed. I packed loads of food for fear of being hungry. The down side is that your pack is really heavy. The up side (other than not getting hungry) is that you literally eat your pack away.. So what do I eat on these tracks: Nutella on bread and some tea for breakfast. 1 can of tuna with two slices of bread and an apple for lunch. Dinner consists of mash potatoes, beans, noodles, and tuna with an orange for desert (yes, it weighs a lot to carry, but tases really good!). Then there are munchies: 1 large chocolate bar + 1 chocolate cookie - Yummie!

More card games in the evening with Team America. This time we played this game called BS. Won once, lost once.

Today I realized what I had forgotten from Mt. Whitney hike back in the states. The camera battery gets low in the morning due to the cold. The solution was obvious - Sleep with the camera. So from this point on I slept with the Nutella and the camera.

Day 3 - Sunday:

Yet another gorgeous day. The day started with a climb up to the top of the mountain (I forget the name). The views were spledid. Indeed the best track I've had thus far (not to take away from the other tracks, which were great). No cloads, a very vert clear day. The fiolks at the DOC say that it rains every 2 out of 3 days in this area of NZ, as it's the most wet area, with some 12 meters of rain per year! At the top I spent some 3 hours, taking my time. We (Anna, Karen, Jake, Joel and myself) also tried to climb up a side track (Mt. Hart), which is very steep, and we got about 2/3 up and stopped for fear of not being able to get back down. Heather stayed behind, and read Genesis...

I was walking faster than team america, and so as we headed down I went on my own since I still waned to have a side track for the highest waterfall in NZ (580m). So off I went all the way down and to the waterfall, which was very impressive indeed. Didn't do much this evening, as it was fairly late, and I had to wake up early the next morning to catch a boat at 14:00. Today was a 14km day plus about 4 or 5 for the warterfall excursion.

The evening was uneventful. No cards. I did talk to this American guy, named John, who emigrated to Australia some 20 years ago. He told me how 2 years ago, he and his wife, and their 9 year old boy and 12 year old girl went on a 6 month vacation in the US, where they did a lot of hiking and stuff. Apparently, they went once on a 9-day track. He carried 40kg, wife carried 20kg, girl 15kg, and little boy only 10kg... My my, I think their last name must have been Rambo...


Day 4 - Monday:

The weathter was fairly crappy but that was of no consequence. The two important days were Day 2 and Day 3 and those were great. I needed to get to Sand Fly point (end of track) by 14:00 - some 18km. I took no chances and left at 7:31 (earliest ever, and for the first time I did not leave last..). There were still some very nice views along the way. A few miles to the end I decided I just wanted to get there, so I gutted those miles. I arrived at roughly 12:24 to the end, with loads of time to spare. Also, it seemed I was first on the scene. What a strange feeling...
Since I head much time to spare, I got my new book out (titled "Time" by Stephen Baxter. It's SciFi) and started reading. Jake asked me about the book, and I was thinking, it's a science fiction book, much like what Heather was reading the other day, except that hers involved no science.

The boat at 14:00 took us to Milford (some 20 min away), where cruises can be taken across Milford Sound, which are lovely firods. The weather was crap, so I skipped that and hopped on the bus to Te Anau.

Last event of the day was dinner, cooked by myself. I went with the meat sauce and pasta. Quite good, but as always, too much..

Last last thing: I talked to Nir on the phone and since he was ahead of schedule (what a bloody wanker!) we decided to all meet two days earlier, which cut my time in Dunedin by quite a bit. So the plan was for me to go to Dunedin the next day (it's a scenic road with much to see and about 350km I think).

Thursday, April 12: Te Anau

A rather uneventful day that was mostly dedicated to running errands. First, I dropped Nir and Nadav at Rainbow Reach, which is the place where they started the Kepler track from. The weather is still crap, and I hope it picks up for my track. Speaking of, I'm going to do the Milford Sound track, tomorrow, which is 4 days long.

Next, I got a rain cover for my backpack. Now I need to figure something with my shoes, which have revealed themselves as not so waterproof as claimed.

Wednesday, April 11: Te Anau

Nir and Nadav were supposed to start the Kepler today, but due to bad weather they decided to wait another day. Ben was off back to Queenstown. The plan is as follows now. I'll be meeting Ben on the 22nd in a place called Twizel, from which we will continue together doing Mt. Cook. We will both meet up with Nir on the 25th at 12:30 (boy are we precise or what?) in a particular place east of Cass on the way between Christchurch and Greymouth. Nadav is going to split. The three of us will then do the north part of the south island together.

Today, involved a long internet session. I've finally uploaded some photos. Hurray!! These can be viewed at: http://www.ist.caltech.edu/~idaniel/Data/NZ%20Pics/
Note: I will compress the photos later, at which point it will be possible to download entire folders in one shot. Also, the dates are according to the US convention of month/day/year, so as to keep the folders in increasing order relative to dates.

Other than that, Nir, Nadav and I did a bit of cooking. Silly enough, we planned for both lunch and dinner, although there's never enough time for both. So it's a bit of a problem when you finish lunch at around 19:30.. Oh well, it was a late dinner, and completely uncalled for. The next few days I'll be on my own (and tracking) so hopefully I'll have a bit of a break from these exorbitant amounts of foods..

Tuesday, April 9: Routeburn Day 3 - Te Anau

Since we were consistently doing better times than the proposed times given by the DOC (about 2/3 of proposed time), we decided to leave early, and gut the way to the Divide. Then call Nir and Nadav and have them not pick us up, instead just to meet in Te Anau. Anyway, we left as planned at precisely 9:00, and arrived to the Divide at 12:20, some 40 minutes earlier than we thought we would . Unfortunately, we didn't manage to hitchhike. After 1.5 hours of failed attempts we gave up. Also, there was no cell reception, which meant we couldn't communicate with the other folks. So, 13:50 was cutoff time. At that point we simply waited until 15:00. The weather was crap (rainy and cold), and my "fabulous" Merrel shoes were wet on the inside since 11:00 (I'll need to strangle the folks at REI for this). Anyway, there was a bus at 15:15, which put us in a dilemma, since the next bus didn't leave until 17:45, and we didn't know if something went screwy with the other team. We skipped the bus, and they showed up at 15:35 so were saved...

We stayed at the same place I stayed last time in Te Anau, which is pretty good and had the added bonus of increasing the chance of re-meeting some locals I've met before..

Monday, April 9: Routeburn Day 2

Early in the morning (~7:30) those kids made so much bloody noise that they must have awakened the dead (surely hey woke me up). Nonetheless, we didn't leave the hut until 10:30. The weather was pretty bad in terms of visibility, but fortunately, that changed dramatically, and ultimately, we got brilliant views as we arrived at the very top. There we met two Jewish American sisters, who were headed the other way.

The walk to the second hut, was not eventful, except that we met a group of 4 Americans that included one guy's father, who seemed to be in better shape than all of us combined. What a guerrilla! Also, we met another American (goes by Dan), who was also traveling with his dad. At the hut we met those kids again, and went for another Yaniv. Team Israel was defeated miserably..

A note about the huts in the great walks. There is a bunk room that occupies up to 50 o 60 people (sometimes half as much). Toilets, running water (with exceptionally cold water), cooking facilities that include gas stoves, and low lights that go off automatically around 22:00.
Also, at 19:00 or 19:30 the DOC (Department of Conservation) person at the hut gives a talk. We call it "Aliyat Mishmar", since they all say the same god damn thing. Namely, if there's fire, go to the helicopter area, don't light candles in the bunk rooms, some weather report, and a lot of bullshit about keeping the place clean and turning off the gas stoves. Anyway, some of these talks are longer than others. Tonight's talk was particularly long and boring and we decided to resume our game during the talk.

Sunday, April 8: Queenstown - Routeburn Day 1

After a (great) week in Queenstown , I've finally left. At 12 noon Ben and I had a shuttle to the beginning of the Routeburn track. Right before leaving I made sure to have a video of Rachel (the British girl who has been dong dinner with us the last few days). She is hilariously funny in the way she speaks with her funny British accent.
Anyway, since Routeburn is not a circular track, and since Nir and Nadav plan to do the Kepler, I left the car in Queenstown, and we decided to hook up in Te Anau. More precisely, in a place called "The Divide", which is 86km north of Te Anau and to where Nir and Nadav are supposed to drive my car. The plan is to meet at 15:00 on Tuesday the 10th of April.

We started the Routeburn at 14:00. As usual, last to start and last to arrive. It's tradition now. The first day was mostly going up for about 10km (I forget the exact figure). Wasn't too bad.


We arrived at Falls Hut, where there were several families. Easter...
We ended up playing Yaniv with 6 kids (ages 15-18). Ben (Aka "the snake") won. Oh well, at least Israeli honor was preserved.

Saturday, April 7: Queenstown

Today I did the Fly by wire thing. You lie in this motor vehicle that swings at supposedly high speed. It was pretty fun, but I've now come to realize I'm not made for flying. I'll be sticking to the ground from now on.

Dinner was not spectacular - took only 40 min to prepare.
As usual we (Ben, Rachel, Dominique - another Brit, Arik and myself) went out to do some bar hopping. Ultimately, we ended up at the "world bar", which we nicked "Sodom and Gomorrah" for some obvious reasons...

Since it all closed at midnight (Easter..), we returned to the backpacker for a session of Yaniv (Arik jumped ship, and Dominique was too drunk to do anything), which was quite funny and sweet (we managed to consume a good 300gr of Nutella..).

Friday, April 6: Queenstown

Ok, today was certainly the most food oriented day, and I cannot imagine transcending this one. It took an hour during breakfast to decide what we wanted to do for dinner. We decided to go with Nyokies (how the hell do you spell that???) in mashroom Alfredo souce, with beans, salad, and banana split for desert. The Nyokies, where to be done from scratch, like everything else.
It an hour to buy groceries, 2.5 hours to cook, 1 hour to eat, and 30 min, for the dishes. In total, we spent about 6 hours for dinner - what an achievement. Needless to say, we are now known as the group that takes over the kitchen. Rachel (the british girl), gets free dinner. Not really free actually - she does all the dishes. We're all willing to spend an extra couple of dollars and not worry about it once we can't move anymore. It works well for everyone I guess.

One thing I did get to do today, in addition to the Spa, was renting a tandem bike with Nir. It was funny as hell as we were riding in town circling the roundabouts several time, driving the wrong way, and watching the locals watch us in shock and awe...

The pubs opened at midnight tonight. Yesterday they closed at midnight, and tomorrow they also close at midnight. It's this whole Easter thing. Go figure...

Thursday, April 5: Queenstown

Woke up late (as usual). I gave (rented?) Arik and Zion the car to go for a day to Milford sound. The rest of us have done what we do everyday now - nothing.. Hanging out, planning dinner, ever more hours in advance. Dinner consisted this time of meat balls, mashed potatoes (out of these really good type.

In the evening we did the usual pool at the bar and bar hopping. There these two assholes that kept giving us advice at pool. So played doubles with them and kicked their asses. Twice.

Wednesday, April 4: Queenstown

The days are becoming very similar now. Wake up late after coming back late from the pubs/clubs. have brunch. Then today we all went ice skating. We had Rachel (a British girl that stays in the same dorm as Ben join us - she's pretty cool). After ice skating (I tried the hockey thing, which is very cool and much harder than it looks on TV), it was time to plan dinner. Zion and Arik had their own, due to food constraints that they have. The rest of us (Nir, Ben, Nadav, Rachel and myself) prepared a pretty good Shakshuka, with hummus and rice. Delicious..
After that, we played some Yaniv, where Saimon (a dude from the UK) joined us. It seems this places is infested with Brits.

Dinner was, as always, followed by going out. We ended up at this latin place, which was quite a bit of fun. Nir had some funny engagement with a drunk Jappanese girl - but since this is a rated PG journal, I'll censor the juicy details...

Tuesday, April 3: Queenstown

I decided to take this day off. Nothing spectacular has been done.

Ben and I decided to do some food sharing, as Zion and Arik are about to leave and also they are on the "Kosher for passover" food diet, which is a little too much for me to stomach, no pun intended...

So I've become the salad man, while Ben makes some other fancy stuff.

As was the case yesterday, the highlight of the day was going out in the evening. This time we were a rather large group - 7 Israelis, and it was quite hillarious... (I'm still mostly undefeated in pool:)

As before, they ended at 3:00am..

Monday, April 2: Queenstown

I was awakened early. Zion, Arik and Ben decided to go Bungee jumping from the tallest one (134m). I tagged along - with no real intentions of plunging down as well. It's quite spectacular for sure.

Other than that, I've resumed my juggling after a bit of break due to tracking and weather constraints.

Ben and I decided to do the Routeburn track together. It's a 3 day track, and is one of the 5 Great Tracks. The thing is that it's not a circular track and so I decided to combine it with the Milford track. So currently the itenerary is: Start Routeburn (from around Queenstow) on the 10th, finish on the 12th at a place called "The Divide". Hang out there for 24 hours, and then do the Milford track 13, 14, 15, 16. I'm on my own for the Milford for now. If a space opens Ben will join.


In the evening we had the "Seder". There probably over 100 people most of whom Israeli Travelers. It was quite amusing. Afterwards Ben, Nir, Nadav and myself headed to the bar for some good time. There's this place that has free pool. Funny enough we played doubles, where I was playing with this girl Jenna (Aussi), who for whatever reason thought the other team should buy her a beer because we won several games. It was very amusing to watch...

Hanging out with these three guys is most amusing. I predict fun and eventul days are lying ahead.

The day ended around 2:30am..

Sunday, April 1: Te Anau - Queenstown

Early in the morning one of the Israelis I met the day before (Nir) went fishing. He got lucky and got this pretty big fish. See photos at: http://www.ist.caltech.edu/~idaniel/Data/NZ%20Pics/April%201,%20Te%20Anau/. In fact, I'm going to start posting pictures. I'll try to be organized about it. They'll be on at: http://www.ist.caltech.edu/~idaniel/Data/NZ%20Pics/

We were a group of three cars of Israelis (Nir, Nadav, Etai - the "slow" car, Tal and Zion - the "keep with me" car, Arik and Myself - the "real cool fast" car) heading from Te Anau to Queenstown.

Queenstown is the convergence point for all the Israelis around here. They all come here for the "Seder" to be held tomorrow. It will be quite amusing I'm sure. We got this pretty cool backpacker that has free Spa. Zion had already taken advantage of it. Surprisingley, I met Ben, who is one of the four Israelis I met in Christchurch the day I met Zion. He continued on with the Kiwi Experience bus.

Last thing about Queenstown - this is the place where all the crazy activities are done (bungy, fly by wire, jet something, and a whole bunch of things I need to still find out about).

Later in the evening we all headed to some pub, which had ... Free Pool - Hurray. I'm getting to like this game. What's even nicer is that I seem to be better than the rest of them (Tudor: it was worth spending all those days in the Michigan Union playing pool, rather than doing research. Go Blue :)

And of course at the pub we met with no others than the 4 Israelis we met during the Kepler track.