A quick introduction to my new blog. Clearly, if you’re here have nothing better to do with your life, no reason not to waste a little more time. Right?

Recap of the final days I spent in New Zealand. Along with an awesome original song and slideshow!

There’s one final post coming, I swear. In just one or two days, its special so its taking a bit longer than I thought.

So don’t go away, I’ll back after a short messages from our sponsors.

Timm and I having a jam awhile back.

So I sold my guitar today at a pawn shop. Bringing it back to the U.S. just wasn’t going to happen. Marie (what I named my guitar) will be sorely missed and provided me with endless hours of joy. I bought her for $135, and got $60 back. Not too bad, I wasn’t really expecting anything more than that. The end is coming near and I’ll be home to warm weather. Yay!

It’s certainly weird to know that I’m only going to be living in New Zealand for one more week. Maybe I’ve become so accommodated to living here that I haven’t realized in less than 7 days I’m going to have to pack everything up into to big bags and head home. Unfortunatly, I also have a few more exams standing in my way.

I’d of course be lying if I said I wasn’t a little sad. This place is rockem-sockem hoppin, and in all reality, it might be a good while before I get back. Plus there will be lots of sweet friends I made to that I won’t see for a little bit.

I am pretty excited to get home to warm weather, family, and more than just pasta and grilled cheese for dinner each night, though.

Soooo….with that said. Stay tuned for a few more posts before this adventure is over.

Keep it real home skillets.

Here’s another post about a tramp (hike) that I did here in NZ. With just over a week left in this beutiful country, a few of us decided we better make the best of it and go on an adventure. Rich, as you can see, was totally into the idea.

So we started of on what would seem like a regular hike through the woods. Of course when we started going downhill we realized there would only one way to get back. Going uphill of course.

Cate is great at posing for pictures…really.So we made it to the bottom of the trail and was faced with two options. Continue on forward, or loop back around via the stream track. We picked the stream caused it looked way more exciting than anything else.

It soon became obvious what it was called the stream track, because we ended up having to cross the stream about 13 times, and at times it came way past our ankles. If you’ve ever seen the movie Anaconda (not recommended) than that’s what it was like.

At one of these big pools I may have jokingly mentioned the desire to go swimming. With me saying this Cate, Rich, and Lynn were quick to press the matter. While I was a little afraid the water may have been infested with some vicious bacteria that would eat me from the inside out, I gave in. Turns out I’m a sucker for peer pressure.

The water was cold. And when I was happy with just jumping in once, Rich insisted I jump in again cause he missed the photo. So I did. Then he missed it again. So I jumped again. Then he missed it again. So I jumped again. Then he missed it again. By this point, my skin was burning because the water was so cold. I did not jump again.

Either way, we continued on the stream which ended at a nice water fall. After cheking it out for a bit we climbed back up to the main trail to get back to the car, with our shoes soaked but heads held high. The signs had said on advanced trampers should hike this trail. We now consider us advanced.

Today you are going to learn the art of the “Tim Tam Slam” as demonstrated by our in-house Tim Tam guru and model, Cate.

You may be sitting there thinking “What is a Tim Tam Slam, Nick?” Well, to put it simply, its a 1″x2″ piece of Joy. It’s like anything that was good in world suddenly exploded in your mouth in edible fashion. Plainly put- IT…IS…YUMMY! Directions are as follow:

4. Now take one bitten corner and dip it in to the milk or hot coco. Take your mouth and apply it to the other bitten corner and apply your mouth. Now suck. Once you feel the liquid touch your lips then stop. Now take the whole Tim Tam and plop it in your mouth. Take too long and you’ll fins yourself in a messy situation of melting chocolate.

5. Try not to die from the orgasmic blast of chocolaty deliciousness in your mouth so you can do another!

Also, you’ll probably have to do serious research to find somewhere that sells these back in the U.S. They’re aren’t exactly sold there as far as I know, although I’ll be bringing back some packages. This Wikipedia article also has some alternative ideas. So gimmie a call when I get back and we’ll give it a go.

With about 3 or so weeks left in NZ we seem to be searching for those little things that we have left to do around Auckland. Things that have been on our lists, but haven’t gotten around to yet. Well a few days ago, we did just that. We went and checked out One Tree Hill. Yes I know there is an obnoxious show named after it.

Cate felt she could climb the hill instead of taking the “Sheep Path.”

Technically this annoying, One Tree Hill, a show that involves a bunch of angsty young persons with boatloads of melodrama is named after a U2 song on the album “Joshua Tree.” One Tree Hill (the song) refers to the volcanic peek, One Tree Hill, here in Auckland. The song was released exclusively here in New Zealand, which I thought to be pretty cool.

Sheep

More Sheep

Everyone

Funny thing about One Tree Hill however…..there’s no actual tree there anymore. And while I originally planned to write out the story and reason behind it, it turns out to be quite a long story to retype. Thus, I highly encourage you to read the Wikipedia version, which is full of Boy Scout jamborees, angry activists, amongst other things. It’s not too long.

We hiked up the hill to the top where you can see a tree stump of where it was. Oh yeah, and there’s a big Obelisk there commemorating someone. The park (which is sacred ground to the Maori people) also had sheep and cows wandering freely. We tried to get up close to some, but they usually manage to scamper off.

I presume this is the “Tree.” Maybe it should be renamed “One Stump Hill”. Or just “Stumpy Hill.“

Sheep?!!

My friend and fellow Pinhole Adventure photographer, Kevin, has been working on a photo study of the Maori culture and its influence on urban life around Auckland and New Zealand. He’s an extremely talented photographer, so I suggest you check out his stuff. Just Click Here. The link will also be posted under the “Cool Links” for clicking in the future. Be sure to look through them all!

So last night a bunch of us decided to head to the Sky Tower in Auckland here for some dinner. As the defining icon in Auckland’s skyline it stands at 328m (1,076ft). It’s known as the highest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere.

We rode up to the observation level on possibly the fastest elevator (‘lift’ is what they call them here) I’ve ever ridden. I had to pop my ears at least 5 times on the journey up.

We looked out over Auckland and the harbor as the sun was setting, then made our way up another level to “Orbit” for our 5:30 reservations. We quickly realized why it was called “Orbit” beside it being a snazzy, hip name for a restaurant. The restaurant in fact did orbit around the center of the tower, meaning it MOVED…very slowly. So luckily we got a constantly changing views of the night city scape as we ate.

The restaurant was also pretty classy. Way to classy for a bunch of cheap and poor college kids. The minimum amount to spend for dinner was $30. Way more than I ever would. But there was justification. To go up the Sky Tower just to look out is $18. So I might as well pay the extra $12 for a really nice dinner, as I was planning to go up the tower at some point before I left NZ.
So once we spent our minimum (which pretty much included the main dish and a beverage) and ate dinner we descended back to earth. Certainly an experience to dine so high up, but with a price tag of $30, it’ll be awhile before I do that again.