Ah yes, back in Korea. It almost feels like home, except for the fairly constant reminder that I'm in a foreign country. It has been very nice though to have a place of my own rather than moving around from hostel to hotel to camper, etc.
"Collectable Korean Quotes and Curious Quips"
There have been some pretty unusual situations Shannon and I have found ourselves in over the past few days. A lot of mine have had to do with an overnight camp I just got back from (which I'll get to shortly), and while generally all of this is a result of the language barrier between everyone, it's made for some rather interesting remarks.
"Don't use those toothpicks, they're from China." I don't know whether we shouldn't be using them because Chinese goods are bad, or if there was concern that the distance travelled to get here may have ruined them. Either way, Chinese toothpicks seem to be bad.
"I need to take a leak... I need to take a dump." This was my principal practicing English phrases for the grade 5 overnight camp. I managed to convince him (after I burst out laughing, which was extremely embarrassing) to instead go with "I need to use the toilet", though we also ended up teaching the kids "Nature calls me" which was kinda cute but not so crude. The next however, he just kinda sprung on everyone while we were practicing.
"No, no, no, listen and repeat me: I have diarrhea . Repeat! Di-a-rrhea!" To make sure the kids were properly equipped to explain to us in English when they got sick, we taught them how to say (among other illnesses) "I have diarrhea." I guess it's not that bad, but I still started laughing and turned bright red every time my principal had the kids sound it out slowly.
"I love you! I looooooovvvvvee you! WWWWWWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAaaaaaaaaagggghghgh!" This came from a drunk Korean who decided to watch us play hockey one afternoon. At first he was a little scary, as he spoke just enough English for us to know he was yelling at us. Then he started up with the most maniacal laugh I've ever heard, and when he calmed down, he would tell us he loved us, say something in Korean, apologize to us, and finally start singing 'Country Roads".
It's the Lunar New Year right now (or Chinese New Year, if that's a little more familiar to you), and all the kids are on graduation week which means no school. My school however, did an overnight English camp for 15 of the grade 5 students. It wasn't quite the intense 3 days of English my principal wanted it to be, but it was pretty good for them. We travelled to the old capital of Korea visiting everything that remotely resembled a temple or shrine along the way. I actually got to learn quite a bit about Korean history and culture (some of it, such as the stories about General Kim Yu-Shin are rather shocking), but it was tough to find enough English to get a complete handle on what was going on. This problem was amplified when my principal would, before and after every stop, get me to introduce and follow-up on where we were going or had just been. Whoo, I tell you, I was a fish out of water for three days here, I felt like I hardly ever knew what was going on. My principal's English is good, but not great, so I was always telling the kids we were in one place when it was really another, that we'd be there for 30 minutes when it was only 5, or that lunch would be our next stop, and then 3 stops later we still wouldn't have eaten. It helps that they didn't really understand me though, so really I'm the only one who knows how much I was screwing up.
My principal, who is a very nice and wonderful man, has begun to consider me a part of his family. I think I'm very glad for this, but it does bring up certain cultural and communication differences between us that I don't know if I'll (or he) will ever be able to overcome. He likes taking me out for lunch these days, but I think he likes doing it because he feels I would like it, or that I would be lonely otherwise (he does it mostly on days Shannon's not around). He wants to teach me Korean, which is great, but when I ask how to say words in Korean, he just gives me the English definition. On our camp, he and I shared a room together, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be - when I first got in the room, there was only a tiny single mattress on the floor, and while I sucked it up and told myself this was something I could do and feel comfortable with, I had a really tough time swallowing such a big lie to myself. We did end up with another mattress, so things weren't too bad. And to pass the time we had each night, we went to the sauna.
The Korean sauna is in fact just like any sauna, only there's has multiple saunas and hot pools, and showers to clean before and after, and everyone goes naked. I think most are divided by gender, as this one was, so it was actually rather comfortable. The first night was really quiet, and I had a nice relaxing time just sitting around, sweating or soaking. The second night, not only did we bring all the kids, but there were tonnes of other Koreans too. Now, I'm fine with sitting around without any clothes on, my body's not great but I have no problem with people seeing me when I'm fully disrobed, but it's a little strange when everyone is giving you constant looks as you're sitting there. The kids were fine, but for all these other Koreans, I was probably the first naked white guy they'd ever seen. How could they not take a long glance over at me?
Anyway, I'm back now, and blogging away as you can tell. Apologies for the long blog, this is two weeks in a row now where I've oozed as much info out of my brain as possible. Since there's no school right now, I've got very little to do so typing on the computer for hours on end is no problem. I should go to the dentist soon perhaps, as I think the old crown on my tooth is starting to come off. It's become very sensitive to hot and cold these days, and playing the didgeridoo makes it feel like it's trying to peel itself out of my mouth and off to somewhere that doesn't shake it around so badly. Whatever happens in the end, I'll be sure to post it up here. Thanks for taking the time to read!
Rich
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
The End Of it All, and Global Thoughts
The final leg of the Down Under journey had us catching a 6am flight from NZ to Brisbane Australia. Taking a 3 1/2 hour flight and arriving only 1 hour later is pretty sweet (time changes, daylight savings differences, etc.), and by 8:30, Shannon and I had already gotten a rental car and were on the road. Our first stop was Byron Bay, a once quiet ocean town that has experienced the full brunt of the backpacker tourism industry, with thousands of people swarming the city daily.
When I came to Byron Bay 6 years ago, it was a relatively busy place with some crazy pubs to go to and an awesome, not too crowded beach to relax at. Now, it was full-bore wall-to-wall people with hotels charging $200 a night and 3 night minimum stays, hostels charging regular hotel rates, and people clamouring over each other just to get down the street. I've read it's the first district in Australia to elect members of government from the Green party, as they're trying to prevent the town from becoming known only as a tourist Mecca, but even while limiting the amount of development in the area, it's still hard to find a more crowded, bustling place. A lot of attitude too, which was unfortunate, but it still had a very lively vibe.
We did a little big of everything while in Byron - surfing, scuba diving, sightseeing and just relaxing on the beach. Our scuba diving trip was a little crappy, as the visibility was rather poor, and since it was Shannon's and my first time in ages, we were through our oxygen 10-15 minutes early and had to head up pretty quick. We did get to see lots of cool stuff like sharks, manta rags, and other weird things that you only get to see on the Discovery Channel, but it could have been better. Anyway, after 3 nights in Byron, we took off, feeling that maybe 2 nights would have been better.
However, our second in Byron did give us a chance to check out the coolest street performers I've ever seen. It was a guy on drums and a guy on the didgeridoo playing some fast-tempo dance music. These guys were so good, they had nearly 100 people crowded around, and when it was done they sold all the CD's they had plus must've made plenty more money from people dropping some cash for the show. Anyway, we bought a CD, and if you're bored, check out "Wild Marmalade", it's a lame name, but a great band.
Our next stop was unknown to us until we actually got there. The plan was to head to Rainbow Beach, a small, rarely visited beach town 4 hours north. But, along the way we stopped at a tourist info spot, and met perhaps the sweetest little lady the whole country had to offer. We must have talked to this elderly woman for an hour, though she did a good portion of the talking while we were there. She was largely deaf, so her accent, her age, and her subtle inability to pronounce words properly gave her the cutest speech I've ever heard. She managed to convince us to go to a place called Tin Can Bay, a sort of English rip-off of the aboriginal name of Tuncanbar. Once there, we stayed in probably the only accommodation in town - it was the motel, the backpacker hostel, the town pub and a drive through liquor store - and it was only $45 a night for the two of us, which was awesome.
Tin Can Bay was a really quiet, slow moving town. There really wasn't a lot happening at all, but the main attraction was pretty cool. Every morning at 8, a couple of dolphins cruise into the bay and wait around for people to feed them. The harbour staff have started to do some minor management of it, mostly just stopping people from swimming out with them and getting too close, but basically, you can show up, go out up to your thighs, let the dolphins swim around and feed them once the staff give out food for everyone to toss (only so much though, they don't want them getting dependent on people).
There was also a rather obnoxious pelican down by the water. I'd never seen a pelican before, so standing within a few feet of one was rather unsettling. They've got these bizarre, buggy eyes, and everything about it reminded me of an annoying neighbour, one who hangs on the edge of the fence just waiting to be invited over so he can steal all your food.
When the thing opened it's mouth to take a jab at the harbour staff holding fish, I seriously began to wonder if he might try and get the whole staff member down his throat.
Our next stop was at Airlie Beach, another once quiet town that now exists entirely to service the Whitsunday Islands and the tourism that comes with it. And wow, is there a lot of tourism. Back in the day when Cap'n Cook came through and mapped out the area, he named the islands the Cumberland Islands (or something similar to that), but when people saw the potential to make some money touring the islands here, they changed the name to the Whitsunday's, and now the whole town is just swamped with people coming through to sail around for 3 or 4 days, then take off somewhere else, as there's not a lot else to do. Well, maybe there is, but it certainly kept hidden to all but those who are really looking.
We shipped out with 30 or so others on a boat called The Clipper. It was a nice boat, Shan and I had our own tiny room, and we met some really great people along the way. Our crew was a little unusual though - I think they were paid to be as much entertainers as they were crew members, and the constant "yeah! Let's Party!" attitude they exuded was a little tiring. We got to do lots of great snorkeling, and some questionable scuba diving. Shannon wasn't given enough weights to stay under, which meant I had to hold her down with one hand to keep her from surfacing every 2 minutes (which usually happened anyways).
After Airlie, we made the 14 hour drive back to Brisbane, stopping just outside it in a nice town called Noosa. Actually, the area was called Noosa, and we spent plenty of time trying to find our way between Noosa Heads, Noosaville, Noosa town centre, and every other patch of land with Noosa in the name. Shannon, who used to competitively race small sailboats, finally got a chance to take me out on the water, though the wind was pretty light and our boat was terribly rigged. Of course, I wouldn't have known either of these things to be true, I'm just telling you what she told me. And yes, she can indeed curse like a sailor when out on the water, though I think a foul-mouth makes a sailor better, cause the more angry she got, the faster the little boat seemed to go.
We spent our last night in Brisbane and decided that the only way to truly get everything out of our adventure was to blow as much money as we could before leaving town. We got a somewhat nicer hotel than we usually allowed ourselves, spent a whole day power shopping (we actually had to split up to cover more ground), then went out for a somewhat fancy lobster dinner. Oh, and I bought a didgeridoo, which is freakin' awesome.
I could write a whole blog entry on the search put in for this and the possible flaws it may have in authenticity, but I think I'll just keep it simple here. It looks good, it sounds cool, and I'm getting to be an okay player. I'm probably the best didgeridoo player in Korea, though that's more because there's no one who plays here I'm sure than a reflection of my skill.
But yes, that was the end of our trip. After Brisbane, it was off to the airport for a 14 hour plane ride back to Seoul, where we were able to catch a train right to home that same day. And that's when we found our gas turned off, meaning it was a cold, cold night of no heat that first evening back. Brrrr....
I'm going to take a moment here from some quick social commentary, which you're welcome to skip over if you feel you've read enough. This blog has been rather lengthy, but there's always lots to say, and I'm hoping at least one or two people out there enjoy taking a few minutes to skim through it all.
While the list of countries I've travelled to over the past 6 months is by no means lengthy, I have started to feel a slightly better understanding for how life and people go by in places around the world beyond just Canada. I by no means want to come across as a worldly, experience traveller who has "seen it all" and "knows the ways of the world", but I have seen some, and I've learned a bit, and I've been having a tough time lately feeling comfortable with the challenges and difficulties countries are having as a result of both their own actions and those of other countries. I think the main thoughts I'm having are "global warming is terrible" and "love your environment", but I think those conclusions are a little to simplistic for what I'm feeling right now.
In Korea, there is a constant fog in the air. When I first got here, I thought that the country just never really had sunny days. Then I realized that heavy exercise outside was leaving me with a minor cough each time. A few days ago, at around 5 o'clock, I was able to stare directly at the sun as it was setting. Of course, it didn't set for nearly an hour, but the pollution in the air was so thick you could look right at the sun, and the whole town, rather than being brightly illuminated, had more of a redish glow to it.
If you take a few moments to google newspaper headlines in Australia, specifically the province of Queensland, you'll probably find every news site has something regarding water levels. While we were there, every, EVERY, newspaper had on the front page an article regarding the current water crisis the area is going through. Water levels are so low that the government is currently building water recycling systems. These aren't sewage treatment plants like at home, but systems designed to allow water that goes straight from the gutter, the toilet, wherever, right back into the drinking system. If they are successful at installing this, and the population continues to grow at the rate it has, their dam levels will reach 40% capacity in 3 years.
We met an Australian girl working at a bar who nearly started crying while talking about this to us. Apparently there's been a 5 year drought of sorts - there's definitely rain, just not much, and the population is growing. Everyone knows it's bad because they're told it's bad. There's signs everywhere - "Conserve water", "Do less laundry", "Only use what you need". This girl however had just come back from a trip to the outback, and had seen what was happening to the farming communities. Animals were lying dead on the ground, starving to death and dying of thirst. Sheep were eating dirt in hopes of something being in it to keep them alive. She mentioned that pretty soon they may have to start charging for water instead of just giving jugs of it to people when they sit down at the bar.
I've been reading lots of headlines at home about unusually strong and frequent winter storms that have been coming across Vancouver Island this winter, and I hope people are thinking about why the weather can be so extreme and bizarre these days. I don't know if global warming is necessarily the end of it all or a planet killer, as it's often made out to be, but it certainly seems capable of completely shifting the way people live. I mean, if ice caps melt and water levels rise, that doesn't mean everybody drowns, but it certainly does make for a long, painful and sad population change inland.
Well, I certainly don't know enough about it to speak with anymore authority than I have, and hopefully I haven't overstepped my boundaries too much. I've heard, though, that Britain is making everyone in the school systems watch "An Inconvenient Truth", which I think is a great idea. If you're tired of reading my blogs, or if you're bored until the next one comes out, I suggest you go and watch it to. Till next week...
When I came to Byron Bay 6 years ago, it was a relatively busy place with some crazy pubs to go to and an awesome, not too crowded beach to relax at. Now, it was full-bore wall-to-wall people with hotels charging $200 a night and 3 night minimum stays, hostels charging regular hotel rates, and people clamouring over each other just to get down the street. I've read it's the first district in Australia to elect members of government from the Green party, as they're trying to prevent the town from becoming known only as a tourist Mecca, but even while limiting the amount of development in the area, it's still hard to find a more crowded, bustling place. A lot of attitude too, which was unfortunate, but it still had a very lively vibe.
We did a little big of everything while in Byron - surfing, scuba diving, sightseeing and just relaxing on the beach. Our scuba diving trip was a little crappy, as the visibility was rather poor, and since it was Shannon's and my first time in ages, we were through our oxygen 10-15 minutes early and had to head up pretty quick. We did get to see lots of cool stuff like sharks, manta rags, and other weird things that you only get to see on the Discovery Channel, but it could have been better. Anyway, after 3 nights in Byron, we took off, feeling that maybe 2 nights would have been better.
However, our second in Byron did give us a chance to check out the coolest street performers I've ever seen. It was a guy on drums and a guy on the didgeridoo playing some fast-tempo dance music. These guys were so good, they had nearly 100 people crowded around, and when it was done they sold all the CD's they had plus must've made plenty more money from people dropping some cash for the show. Anyway, we bought a CD, and if you're bored, check out "Wild Marmalade", it's a lame name, but a great band.Our next stop was unknown to us until we actually got there. The plan was to head to Rainbow Beach, a small, rarely visited beach town 4 hours north. But, along the way we stopped at a tourist info spot, and met perhaps the sweetest little lady the whole country had to offer. We must have talked to this elderly woman for an hour, though she did a good portion of the talking while we were there. She was largely deaf, so her accent, her age, and her subtle inability to pronounce words properly gave her the cutest speech I've ever heard. She managed to convince us to go to a place called Tin Can Bay, a sort of English rip-off of the aboriginal name of Tuncanbar. Once there, we stayed in probably the only accommodation in town - it was the motel, the backpacker hostel, the town pub and a drive through liquor store - and it was only $45 a night for the two of us, which was awesome.
Tin Can Bay was a really quiet, slow moving town. There really wasn't a lot happening at all, but the main attraction was pretty cool. Every morning at 8, a couple of dolphins cruise into the bay and wait around for people to feed them. The harbour staff have started to do some minor management of it, mostly just stopping people from swimming out with them and getting too close, but basically, you can show up, go out up to your thighs, let the dolphins swim around and feed them once the staff give out food for everyone to toss (only so much though, they don't want them getting dependent on people).
There was also a rather obnoxious pelican down by the water. I'd never seen a pelican before, so standing within a few feet of one was rather unsettling. They've got these bizarre, buggy eyes, and everything about it reminded me of an annoying neighbour, one who hangs on the edge of the fence just waiting to be invited over so he can steal all your food.
When the thing opened it's mouth to take a jab at the harbour staff holding fish, I seriously began to wonder if he might try and get the whole staff member down his throat.Our next stop was at Airlie Beach, another once quiet town that now exists entirely to service the Whitsunday Islands and the tourism that comes with it. And wow, is there a lot of tourism. Back in the day when Cap'n Cook came through and mapped out the area, he named the islands the Cumberland Islands (or something similar to that), but when people saw the potential to make some money touring the islands here, they changed the name to the Whitsunday's, and now the whole town is just swamped with people coming through to sail around for 3 or 4 days, then take off somewhere else, as there's not a lot else to do. Well, maybe there is, but it certainly kept hidden to all but those who are really looking.
We shipped out with 30 or so others on a boat called The Clipper. It was a nice boat, Shan and I had our own tiny room, and we met some really great people along the way. Our crew was a little unusual though - I think they were paid to be as much entertainers as they were crew members, and the constant "yeah! Let's Party!" attitude they exuded was a little tiring. We got to do lots of great snorkeling, and some questionable scuba diving. Shannon wasn't given enough weights to stay under, which meant I had to hold her down with one hand to keep her from surfacing every 2 minutes (which usually happened anyways).
After Airlie, we made the 14 hour drive back to Brisbane, stopping just outside it in a nice town called Noosa. Actually, the area was called Noosa, and we spent plenty of time trying to find our way between Noosa Heads, Noosaville, Noosa town centre, and every other patch of land with Noosa in the name. Shannon, who used to competitively race small sailboats, finally got a chance to take me out on the water, though the wind was pretty light and our boat was terribly rigged. Of course, I wouldn't have known either of these things to be true, I'm just telling you what she told me. And yes, she can indeed curse like a sailor when out on the water, though I think a foul-mouth makes a sailor better, cause the more angry she got, the faster the little boat seemed to go.
We spent our last night in Brisbane and decided that the only way to truly get everything out of our adventure was to blow as much money as we could before leaving town. We got a somewhat nicer hotel than we usually allowed ourselves, spent a whole day power shopping (we actually had to split up to cover more ground), then went out for a somewhat fancy lobster dinner. Oh, and I bought a didgeridoo, which is freakin' awesome.
I could write a whole blog entry on the search put in for this and the possible flaws it may have in authenticity, but I think I'll just keep it simple here. It looks good, it sounds cool, and I'm getting to be an okay player. I'm probably the best didgeridoo player in Korea, though that's more because there's no one who plays here I'm sure than a reflection of my skill.But yes, that was the end of our trip. After Brisbane, it was off to the airport for a 14 hour plane ride back to Seoul, where we were able to catch a train right to home that same day. And that's when we found our gas turned off, meaning it was a cold, cold night of no heat that first evening back. Brrrr....
I'm going to take a moment here from some quick social commentary, which you're welcome to skip over if you feel you've read enough. This blog has been rather lengthy, but there's always lots to say, and I'm hoping at least one or two people out there enjoy taking a few minutes to skim through it all.
While the list of countries I've travelled to over the past 6 months is by no means lengthy, I have started to feel a slightly better understanding for how life and people go by in places around the world beyond just Canada. I by no means want to come across as a worldly, experience traveller who has "seen it all" and "knows the ways of the world", but I have seen some, and I've learned a bit, and I've been having a tough time lately feeling comfortable with the challenges and difficulties countries are having as a result of both their own actions and those of other countries. I think the main thoughts I'm having are "global warming is terrible" and "love your environment", but I think those conclusions are a little to simplistic for what I'm feeling right now.
In Korea, there is a constant fog in the air. When I first got here, I thought that the country just never really had sunny days. Then I realized that heavy exercise outside was leaving me with a minor cough each time. A few days ago, at around 5 o'clock, I was able to stare directly at the sun as it was setting. Of course, it didn't set for nearly an hour, but the pollution in the air was so thick you could look right at the sun, and the whole town, rather than being brightly illuminated, had more of a redish glow to it.
If you take a few moments to google newspaper headlines in Australia, specifically the province of Queensland, you'll probably find every news site has something regarding water levels. While we were there, every, EVERY, newspaper had on the front page an article regarding the current water crisis the area is going through. Water levels are so low that the government is currently building water recycling systems. These aren't sewage treatment plants like at home, but systems designed to allow water that goes straight from the gutter, the toilet, wherever, right back into the drinking system. If they are successful at installing this, and the population continues to grow at the rate it has, their dam levels will reach 40% capacity in 3 years.
We met an Australian girl working at a bar who nearly started crying while talking about this to us. Apparently there's been a 5 year drought of sorts - there's definitely rain, just not much, and the population is growing. Everyone knows it's bad because they're told it's bad. There's signs everywhere - "Conserve water", "Do less laundry", "Only use what you need". This girl however had just come back from a trip to the outback, and had seen what was happening to the farming communities. Animals were lying dead on the ground, starving to death and dying of thirst. Sheep were eating dirt in hopes of something being in it to keep them alive. She mentioned that pretty soon they may have to start charging for water instead of just giving jugs of it to people when they sit down at the bar.
I've been reading lots of headlines at home about unusually strong and frequent winter storms that have been coming across Vancouver Island this winter, and I hope people are thinking about why the weather can be so extreme and bizarre these days. I don't know if global warming is necessarily the end of it all or a planet killer, as it's often made out to be, but it certainly seems capable of completely shifting the way people live. I mean, if ice caps melt and water levels rise, that doesn't mean everybody drowns, but it certainly does make for a long, painful and sad population change inland.
Well, I certainly don't know enough about it to speak with anymore authority than I have, and hopefully I haven't overstepped my boundaries too much. I've heard, though, that Britain is making everyone in the school systems watch "An Inconvenient Truth", which I think is a great idea. If you're tired of reading my blogs, or if you're bored until the next one comes out, I suggest you go and watch it to. Till next week...
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
All Things Kiwi
My last blog left Shannon and I cruising down the west coast of New Zealand. It rained most of the time, and our only outdoor activity was a short glacier hike at Franz Joseph,
after which we boogied back across the country to Christchurch (on the east coast) and picked up Shannon's friend Lindsay. A quick rental car later, and the three of us we were off to see my ol' buddy Bert, a friend from High School whom I traveled with to Australia back in the summer of 2000.
Queenstown is a great little place on the southern part of New Zealand's South Island, that is economically fueled by adventure tourism. In the winter, it's skiing and snowboarding, and in the summer, bungie jumping, sky diving and everything else you could imagine. If there's a high-up scary place around, people in Queenstown will find someway to throw you off of it.
Our four days and nights in Queenstown were pretty intense. Shannon and Lindsay went skydiving,
every day Bert took us to a different lake for rope swinging or cliff jumping, we went camping on another lake an hour outside of town, and I don't think there was 
a single evening where we made it to bed before 4am. One night we were out so late, Bert ended up being 3 hours late for work (though you can imagine lack of sleep wasn't the only thing that caused him to be so tired the next day).
While every part of staying Queenstown was pretty memorable, I've got a few photos here that will make one bit extra interesting to tell. We went cliff jumping one afternoon in a place they called "Little Tailand", a 14m rock face that dropped you into a frigidly cold lake. You can see Bert and I standing on the edge here of where you jump off.
Yes, we are definitely both some fine, dashing young men, wouldn't you say? Anyway, the jump down is long enough that you have time to yell, catch your breath, and start another little squeak before hitting the water. I did it once then stuck to the smaller cliffs, but Shannon's friend Lindsay, well... she had the boys building her up to make the jump, and after 20 or so minutes of "C'mon, you can totally do it", she finally took the plunge.
Here's how she looked the next day.
So let that be a warning to all of you looking to hurl yourselves off large cliffs - either keep your legs nice and straight, or just ignore all the silly boys whispering in your ear to "go for it."
After Queenstown, Shannon and I quite literally took off out of the country, catching a 6am flight to Brisbane, Australia the next day. Getting such an early flight proved kind of nice, as by 8am we had a rental car, and by midday we were in Byron Bay, the backpacker Mecca of Australia. Okay, maybe it isn't "the" Mecca, but the demand to stay here was so high, even a cheap hostel room (two person) cost us a minimum of $90, with many places requiring you to stay at least 3 nights. We unfortunately stayed a little two long in Byron, and by our last night, as we watched young 20-somethings wander into the ocean at 3am, drunk, stoned and delirious, we were ready to leave.
And that, my friends, will be where I pick up the adventure in the next blog. Stay tuned next week for tales of sharks, dolphins, tiny Australian hamlets and the noble quest to find the perfect didgeridoo. Till then, thanks for reading!
Rich
after which we boogied back across the country to Christchurch (on the east coast) and picked up Shannon's friend Lindsay. A quick rental car later, and the three of us we were off to see my ol' buddy Bert, a friend from High School whom I traveled with to Australia back in the summer of 2000.Queenstown is a great little place on the southern part of New Zealand's South Island, that is economically fueled by adventure tourism. In the winter, it's skiing and snowboarding, and in the summer, bungie jumping, sky diving and everything else you could imagine. If there's a high-up scary place around, people in Queenstown will find someway to throw you off of it.
Our four days and nights in Queenstown were pretty intense. Shannon and Lindsay went skydiving,
every day Bert took us to a different lake for rope swinging or cliff jumping, we went camping on another lake an hour outside of town, and I don't think there was 
a single evening where we made it to bed before 4am. One night we were out so late, Bert ended up being 3 hours late for work (though you can imagine lack of sleep wasn't the only thing that caused him to be so tired the next day).While every part of staying Queenstown was pretty memorable, I've got a few photos here that will make one bit extra interesting to tell. We went cliff jumping one afternoon in a place they called "Little Tailand", a 14m rock face that dropped you into a frigidly cold lake. You can see Bert and I standing on the edge here of where you jump off.
Yes, we are definitely both some fine, dashing young men, wouldn't you say? Anyway, the jump down is long enough that you have time to yell, catch your breath, and start another little squeak before hitting the water. I did it once then stuck to the smaller cliffs, but Shannon's friend Lindsay, well... she had the boys building her up to make the jump, and after 20 or so minutes of "C'mon, you can totally do it", she finally took the plunge.Here's how she looked the next day.
So let that be a warning to all of you looking to hurl yourselves off large cliffs - either keep your legs nice and straight, or just ignore all the silly boys whispering in your ear to "go for it."
After Queenstown, Shannon and I quite literally took off out of the country, catching a 6am flight to Brisbane, Australia the next day. Getting such an early flight proved kind of nice, as by 8am we had a rental car, and by midday we were in Byron Bay, the backpacker Mecca of Australia. Okay, maybe it isn't "the" Mecca, but the demand to stay here was so high, even a cheap hostel room (two person) cost us a minimum of $90, with many places requiring you to stay at least 3 nights. We unfortunately stayed a little two long in Byron, and by our last night, as we watched young 20-somethings wander into the ocean at 3am, drunk, stoned and delirious, we were ready to leave.
And that, my friends, will be where I pick up the adventure in the next blog. Stay tuned next week for tales of sharks, dolphins, tiny Australian hamlets and the noble quest to find the perfect didgeridoo. Till then, thanks for reading!
Rich
Thursday, February 01, 2007
I Come From the Land Down Under
Hello everyone out there!
I'm back on the blogging band-wagon once again, and it's nice to finally have time and energy to sit down and detail the adventures from the past month online. Over the past month, Shannon and I have been out of Korea and been travelling throughout New Zealand and Australia, seeing the countryside, catching up with old friends and meeting a few new people along the way.
I suppose I'll start at the beginning, but I make no promises regarding the chronological continuity of the following story. I will however try to litter it as best as possible with exciting quips and adventures, and hope I can inspire a few restless, stagnant souls to venture out into a part of the world they haven't been (or at least haven't been in a while).
I'll start by mentioning that Shannon and I are generally unable to agree on anything we're doing until the last possible second. So, when we finally arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand at 11pm on New Years day, we were still trying to sort out currencies, travel methods, where to go, and of course, where we were going to sleep that night. We managed to find an amaaing little hostel that was the former town jail (sleeping in a jail cell is an unusual and exciting experience), and the next day, we sat down to sort out our plans for the next while.
We decided to travel around with a camper van, which was a pretty cool way to get around (we got a little sick of it by the end). They don't really ask for much when letting you operate a vehicle on the other side of the road, as I've had more trouble renting a car in Canada than we did with this thing. But it didn't take much doing to get used to, and pretty soon we were cruising down the highway, gripping the wheel and breaking into a sweat every time a big vehicle came barrelling towards us on what seeemed like the wrong side of the road.
Our first stop was Kaikoura, a tiny town that started up as a whale-watching community. We took some surfing lessons, toured through a cave and around a waterfall, basically just seeing whatever we could around town. What we really wanted to do was go on a dolphin swim, where they take you out on a boat, give you some snorkelling gear, and let you swim with anywhere from 20-300 dolphins, depending on how many are in the area. But, it was about the most popular thing in the whole country, and was booked up for weeks. We did manage to find some dolphins later though, but I'll get to that.
Our next stop was Abel Tasman park, probably the most sceninc and generally enjoyable time we had on our trip. We rented a two-man kayak for two days, and did an overnight kayak and camping trip into the most amazing national park I've ever seen. Massive cliffs draped with trees and ferns dropped down into the ocean all along the coastline, with huge white sandy beaches spattered between them running along the coast for 40 or more kilometers. We kayaked into caves, saw penguins
and seals, spent the days swimming in private lagoons and spent the night right on the beach. It was a little exhausting in the end, as we wanted to get in as much as possible, and so on our second day we plowed through what's normally a 4-hour kayak in 1 1/2 hours. I'm still kicking myself in the pants for only spending one night here, but at the time we thought "hey, there's still lots of country to go see, we should probably get going." Well, yeah there was other good stuff, but it was never quite so amazing as Abel Tasman.
Our next stop was around a little town called Charleston. Charleston was at one time a massive population centre of New Zealand, with 100 hotels lined up down it's main drag. Now, there's hardly more than 100 people in the whole town, most of whom are employed in the caving or white water rafting business. We were there for the caving, though we were told it was more "cave rafting" when we first signed up. The caving itself was pretty exciting, as we got to walk (mostly upright) through a massive limestone cave system that the river had cut into the mountain some X million years ago. It was a little awkward due to the inner tubes we were carrying around, but worth the trouble in the end. What we really came for were the glow worms, 5-15 cm worms that excrete a green glowing substance out there bums. This may sound rather gross, and to see one up close in the light is pretty nasty, but lying on your back, floating through a river in a cave, lit up green by hundreds of thousands of these glow worms is amazing. When you first turn off your light, it looks like a night time sky lit with green stars instead of white. As your eyes adjust, you can see the water around you reflect them and ripple green when you move. Eventually, everything around you has a slight green glow to it, and you can almost make out the shape of the cave and your body just by the light these worms give off.
Coming out of the cave was, without a doubt, the most picturesque scene I have ever witnessed. The opening of the cave had suffered a collapse long ago, and now, forest ferns and moss were trailing down the rocks through the opening, the river could be soon snaking through, and sunbeams (just like those picture-perfect ones you see out of a movie) sliced down into the cave just enough to light up your way out. We mentioned to our young guide that this would be a great place to take a girl on a first date, and he did his best to laugh as though it were something he's never thought of or done.
Our next few days were rather dull, at least relative to those we had just come through. It rained most of the time, and the camper was getting a little cramped and uneventful. We did find ourselves staying in some strange places though, including this one tiny European run campground in the middle of nowhere. They only charged us $10 to stay there, and there wasn't anywhere within 50 km that had a population more than 200, yet this campground had it's own little nightclub, a live outdoor music stage, and semi-functional sauna complete with middle-age European skinny dippers in the river next to it. We spent the evening there with 9 retired German-American tourists who, together mostly, had travelled to such an amazing amout of places in the world, they actually gave each other a hard time for not seeing such "regular" tourist spots like Venice ("How could you not go to Venice?" they would say, "Everybody has been to Venice, why I was there 2 times just last year").
I'll bring this entry to an end for now, and save the second and third parts of the trip for later. Our next stop (sort of) was Queenstown, which was probably the most adrenaline-pumping, nocturnally charged part of our trip. Thanks everyone for stopping by, and my apologies for the long break in blogging, I'll try to keep 'em coming and interesting.
Rich
Oh, and in case I forget - a month away from Korea doesn't happen without a few house-hold hazards. They turned our gas off while we were away and while we have it back on again now, it has been a cold, cold day and night with no heating here! Brrrrr!
I'm back on the blogging band-wagon once again, and it's nice to finally have time and energy to sit down and detail the adventures from the past month online. Over the past month, Shannon and I have been out of Korea and been travelling throughout New Zealand and Australia, seeing the countryside, catching up with old friends and meeting a few new people along the way.
I suppose I'll start at the beginning, but I make no promises regarding the chronological continuity of the following story. I will however try to litter it as best as possible with exciting quips and adventures, and hope I can inspire a few restless, stagnant souls to venture out into a part of the world they haven't been (or at least haven't been in a while).
I'll start by mentioning that Shannon and I are generally unable to agree on anything we're doing until the last possible second. So, when we finally arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand at 11pm on New Years day, we were still trying to sort out currencies, travel methods, where to go, and of course, where we were going to sleep that night. We managed to find an amaaing little hostel that was the former town jail (sleeping in a jail cell is an unusual and exciting experience), and the next day, we sat down to sort out our plans for the next while.
We decided to travel around with a camper van, which was a pretty cool way to get around (we got a little sick of it by the end). They don't really ask for much when letting you operate a vehicle on the other side of the road, as I've had more trouble renting a car in Canada than we did with this thing. But it didn't take much doing to get used to, and pretty soon we were cruising down the highway, gripping the wheel and breaking into a sweat every time a big vehicle came barrelling towards us on what seeemed like the wrong side of the road.
Our first stop was Kaikoura, a tiny town that started up as a whale-watching community. We took some surfing lessons, toured through a cave and around a waterfall, basically just seeing whatever we could around town. What we really wanted to do was go on a dolphin swim, where they take you out on a boat, give you some snorkelling gear, and let you swim with anywhere from 20-300 dolphins, depending on how many are in the area. But, it was about the most popular thing in the whole country, and was booked up for weeks. We did manage to find some dolphins later though, but I'll get to that.
Our next stop was Abel Tasman park, probably the most sceninc and generally enjoyable time we had on our trip. We rented a two-man kayak for two days, and did an overnight kayak and camping trip into the most amazing national park I've ever seen. Massive cliffs draped with trees and ferns dropped down into the ocean all along the coastline, with huge white sandy beaches spattered between them running along the coast for 40 or more kilometers. We kayaked into caves, saw penguins
and seals, spent the days swimming in private lagoons and spent the night right on the beach. It was a little exhausting in the end, as we wanted to get in as much as possible, and so on our second day we plowed through what's normally a 4-hour kayak in 1 1/2 hours. I'm still kicking myself in the pants for only spending one night here, but at the time we thought "hey, there's still lots of country to go see, we should probably get going." Well, yeah there was other good stuff, but it was never quite so amazing as Abel Tasman.
Our next stop was around a little town called Charleston. Charleston was at one time a massive population centre of New Zealand, with 100 hotels lined up down it's main drag. Now, there's hardly more than 100 people in the whole town, most of whom are employed in the caving or white water rafting business. We were there for the caving, though we were told it was more "cave rafting" when we first signed up. The caving itself was pretty exciting, as we got to walk (mostly upright) through a massive limestone cave system that the river had cut into the mountain some X million years ago. It was a little awkward due to the inner tubes we were carrying around, but worth the trouble in the end. What we really came for were the glow worms, 5-15 cm worms that excrete a green glowing substance out there bums. This may sound rather gross, and to see one up close in the light is pretty nasty, but lying on your back, floating through a river in a cave, lit up green by hundreds of thousands of these glow worms is amazing. When you first turn off your light, it looks like a night time sky lit with green stars instead of white. As your eyes adjust, you can see the water around you reflect them and ripple green when you move. Eventually, everything around you has a slight green glow to it, and you can almost make out the shape of the cave and your body just by the light these worms give off.
Coming out of the cave was, without a doubt, the most picturesque scene I have ever witnessed. The opening of the cave had suffered a collapse long ago, and now, forest ferns and moss were trailing down the rocks through the opening, the river could be soon snaking through, and sunbeams (just like those picture-perfect ones you see out of a movie) sliced down into the cave just enough to light up your way out. We mentioned to our young guide that this would be a great place to take a girl on a first date, and he did his best to laugh as though it were something he's never thought of or done.
Our next few days were rather dull, at least relative to those we had just come through. It rained most of the time, and the camper was getting a little cramped and uneventful. We did find ourselves staying in some strange places though, including this one tiny European run campground in the middle of nowhere. They only charged us $10 to stay there, and there wasn't anywhere within 50 km that had a population more than 200, yet this campground had it's own little nightclub, a live outdoor music stage, and semi-functional sauna complete with middle-age European skinny dippers in the river next to it. We spent the evening there with 9 retired German-American tourists who, together mostly, had travelled to such an amazing amout of places in the world, they actually gave each other a hard time for not seeing such "regular" tourist spots like Venice ("How could you not go to Venice?" they would say, "Everybody has been to Venice, why I was there 2 times just last year").
I'll bring this entry to an end for now, and save the second and third parts of the trip for later. Our next stop (sort of) was Queenstown, which was probably the most adrenaline-pumping, nocturnally charged part of our trip. Thanks everyone for stopping by, and my apologies for the long break in blogging, I'll try to keep 'em coming and interesting.
Rich
Oh, and in case I forget - a month away from Korea doesn't happen without a few house-hold hazards. They turned our gas off while we were away and while we have it back on again now, it has been a cold, cold day and night with no heating here! Brrrrr!
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