Delay time

This is somewhat late, but better late than never.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You may be wondering, how was Maria (pronounced Ma-rye-a) Island? It was absolutely spectacular! The views and just the feeling of doing some hard work for once just felt bloody amazing doing some real camping for once (read: carrying all my gear & food). However, there were some really stooopid things that I did. First off, wrong shoes (two sizes too small, works for short distances); second, didn't tape my feet; thirdly, carried way too much gear. Now then, where I really messed up. I trusted some peoples information too much, why? Because I ended up carrying *drum roll* 13.75L of water. In total I was carrying around 30+kg. It killed me. But I did it, which I'm very proud of I must add. I carried it all for about 14km. Not too sure of how long it took, but I think it went smoothly. The camping spot I chose wasn't too special, but it wasn't too shabby mind you. Hidden under some trees for shade during the day and some protection from the weather. I had some view of the bay that I was located in, which was pretty nice especially in the mornings with a sun rise to waken you up. Happy days. Happy happy days.

Day 2 was pretty intense. Ended up hiking around 30km from the campsite to a place called Haunted Bay and then later to another important spot called Robey's Farm, which was a complete freaking waste of time. Haunted Bay on the other hand, holy Hell. It was near perfect in all ways. It really reminded me off the Swedish archipeligo rock formations some how, just different in small details: colour, not as much moss, and rougher. I found a small niche which was bloody amazing. If I had my old army bivy sack, I could slept there without any problems what so ever. Ok, some problems. Windy as shit, and the biggest problem of them all. If it rained really hard, there's a good chance that the water run off would of swept me into sea resulting in a lot of trouble. While I was in the bay, I saw quite a few penguins in the holes. Smelled pretty funky, but awesome to see them in their natural habitat nontheless. There were also quite a lot of small lizards running the place, that were really cute. I almost stepped on a few because they were eveywhere.

On my 3rd day there I packed my tent and started walking towards where I started my trip. Via the inland track this time, so that I could do the Mt. Maria walk as well. Now, lets not forget what a dumb ass I was, as I previously stated. By this point, I was more or less walking on a pair of bloody stumps. I might as well of just crawled all of the place by this point of time. Now, please don't think that I'm over exagerating, because, I'm not. The small toe on my left foot currently is missing about 2mm of skin on the front/inside tip. Not a pretty picture. The skin got loose, folded in on itself and was very uncomfortable. Very very uncomfortable. I didn't really know all this, I just knew that there was a lot of discomfort on my feet. Anyway. I climb the mountain, and it was one hell of climb. It was pretty technical towards the top, but it was a lot of fun. Heaps of fun climbing to the top while jamming to some awesome tunes. The top was great, to say the least.

(I just realized that I've been typing for some rediculous amount of time now, and I'm pretty tired, so I'm thinking about just whizzing through the rest of this.)

So, finished the mountain, cruised down to the wharf (Darlington), pitched my tent, hung out with some people I met during a small bit of the hike, and then went to bed, tired as hell.

Next day (today) I get a ride from Triabunna to Hobart from one of the coolest women, ever. She's got a ticket for just about everything to do with the outdoors. Vertical rescues, film making, survival course, instructor for various things, and now she's a guide. She's guided groups in Antartica and heaps of other places. She rules!

Anyway, back in Hobart now, the time is about 05.30, and I'm bloody tired. So on that note, I'm going to hit the sack.

Before I go though, I want to inform you that at this point, I can't upload any photos because the computer can't process the RAW images (I think).

Aight guys, see ya in a bit, eh?

Change of plans

I'm in Hobart right now, and all is well.

I bumped into someone who I didn't really expect to bump into, but I did, which isn't too big of a surprise considering.

I've mentioned this guy before, his name is also Chris (been meeting heaps of Chris's lately). Anyway, first met him when I picked him up with my German friend while we were driving to Milford Sound. Met him in Dunedin when I found out we were staying at them same hostel, and then bumped into him Christchurch randomly. So while Sari and I were sitting at this park bench, a guy started starring at me and smiling, I didn't really think too much of it, cause I'm in Aus and everyone smiles at everyone here. But this was a little bit different when he wouldn't stop starring at me and started walking towards me. It clicked in my brain, lowe and behold it was Chris. It is, one, small, world - period. I love my life! He's down here with his misses, and we had a coffee together and well, to cut things short, it seems like we'll be doing some fruit picking together. Bloody brilliant!

I've checked out some farms in the area and there seems to be hope, not a 100% just yet, but I think it'll be sweet as. As for Christmas, plans have changed, for the better in my opinion. I'm still going to Maria Island, just by myself though. Now you may be thinking, how is this better? Well, Sari is cool, nice person, blah blah blah, she's just not my cup of tea. No point in trash talking her, just put it like this, I don't want her by my side for Christmas, I'd much rather spend it by myself and some trees. Sounds pretty depressing, but I don't think so. I thought last Christmas was going to suck, but it didn't (read this for a reminder). After that, I don't know. I might go to a festival Marion Bay, but the tickets are 180 bucks, and then booze on top of that. I don't think I'll be going though. I'll probably find some beach to spend it on. Right now, as much as I love meeting and hanging out with locals, I some how want to be away from people. It's really weird, I can't explain it. I'm sure it's just a phase of some sort.

Anyway, so yes, I'm good, I'm happy, I'm in Tasmania. What more could you ask for? Except for a massive pot of gold/money/saffron/diamonds/etc.

Economic Crisis on a Micro scale

Bloop, bleep, and finally, blap.

I'm currently in Melbourne, and all is well on the Eastern Front. I met up with my new travel partner, and she's pretty cool.

I flew from Brisbane yesterday and came here to Melbourne, and tomorrow we're going on the ferry down to Tasmania. WOOHOO!!! And we're going to be doing some CSing down there!

It seems like we're going to be spending Xmas on Maria Island (sweetness!). After which I think I'm going to stay in Tasmania and get a job. I've been spending more money than I originally thought. But don't fret, I'm not going completely bankrupt. I still have enough to last me about 2 months if I spend it wisely.

And so, not a whole lot to tell you guys. I'm well, I'm happy, I'm looking for a job :D

Here are some photos.

All is well.

In Surfers Paradise. Heading up North tomorrow to Brisbane.

Life is peachy :D YAY!!!

Will try and post some photos up later when I have a good computer.

feelin' like a million bucks

Woke up today at 02am and then watched the sunrise...or the part of it at least. Ok, I came when it had clearly gone over the horizon, ok? :P

Here's the quote I wanted to share with you:

"I have no friends besides myself. None. I made that decision today. People turn, pull attitudes, lie, don't come through. I see it all. Every f#cking second of it and I hate it.
"I know some great people, some of whom I trust. They are okay by me. I always watch them to see when they will betray me. I have only one friend - Myself. I am always amused and amazed at how hostile and abusive people can be. ...But it's a lonely place I have put myself in. Why? Because I am sick of letdowns, lies, deceit, and betrayal. I will maintain and support Fort Rollins forever."

- 6.15.85 Tampa, FL
Henry Rollins, Get in the Van

Now, please don't start freaking. I feel just fine, but I can relate to what he's saying quite a bit. I'm not questioning any old friendships, never would I do that. But I do question the value of people that I meet along the road now a days. Hard to explain. Will try to get it into words somehow.

However, right now I have to figure out where I'm going after Byron Bay. I think it will be Surfers Paradise and then to Brisbane.

Here are some photos from Bellingen and Byron Bay. Enjoy!

Byron Bay

I've moved on, and it really feels weird. I'm in Byron Bay at the moment, and it's pretty weird being surrounded by backpackers again. This is, maybe my 5th night in a hostel here in Australia and it's just surreal.

This place really reminds me of Paihia, without a doubt. I think I'm going to go on a dive while I'm here, it's been way too long since my last dive.

Ah...I love my life guys :D Although I am in a bit of weird head space. I read something in Henry Rollins Get in the Van which pretty much clarifies exactly how I feel, but if I were to write it out to you guys, I think that you would get a bit worried (something which you don't have to be).

Ok, internet time is running low, I have to bounce! I'll speak to you guys later!

Peanut Butter Jelly Time (with a Baseball Bat)

Well, my time has come to depart Sydney and start making my way up the East Coast. I'm going to try to make my way over to Bellingen to hang out with a friend, and then after that make my way up to Brisbane. I have to be there before the 15th of December, because then I'm going to be flying down to Melbourne to meet the person whom I might be spending Christmas with. After that, we hopefully will make our way down to Tasmania with a ferry and then go down to Maria Island, like I wrote about before. Woohoo!!!

Haven't been up to much otherwise, just been bumming around. I met a Pro paintballer from the States last night which was pretty cool. Real chill dude, but also quite interesting.

After the whole Christmas and New Year deal, I pretty sure I'm going to be looking for a job of some sort.

Until then my good friends, smell ya later!

PS- I was tipsy when I wrote my last post and that was after coming home late from partying with the pro baller, not getting tipsy at the dentist.

different states

I'm a bit tipsy at the moment, but that shouldn't be any problems.

Went to the dentist, and he ripped out quite a bit out of my chipped tooth. Not cool.

But I'm ok, and I got a 55 dollar discount!!!

Quicktime

News? Yeah, there's some.

Just too lazy to write anything properly at the moment.

Here's what I've been up to recently:

1. Chipped a tooth from eating a yummy beef & curry pie.
2. Temporarily moved in with a new team mate.
3. Played in a paintball tournament and took 4th with the team (also pulled off a 3 on 1*).
4. Randomly met little J from Älvsjö, who I last saw 5 years ago.
5. Planned out a trip to Maria Island in Tasmania for Christmas.
6. Cleaned out my stuff to reduce weight.
7. Finally found Burgel.
8. Finally made my own guacamole (still working on it).
9. Become addicted to both avocado and mango.

No new photos, nothing to take photos of. Sorry!
*3 on 1 is a paintball term which means there were 3 guys against me. And I won.

Photos

Check'em out: http://picasaweb.google.com/ollie.olsson/OzCP4x4#

and some new in http://picasaweb.google.com/ollie.olsson/OzPhotoAssignment#

Enjoy!

Hope this gets through!

CP 4x4

Wow guys, I don't even know where to start with this blog entry.

I know how about my first paintball practice. It wasn't too much of a practice, but it sure as sh*t was fun! We only did a few drills, but I got a feel for the guy who I was practicing with (also met another team mate the day before who was pretty cool). I see a lot of potential with this team. I'm also going to be playing in a tournament this up coming weekend with a Div. 3 team along with the guy who I practiced with. I'm well excited I am.

Also been talking to a girl who my friends from Dunedin recommended I get in touch with, and now it seems like I have someone to spend Christmas with - in Tasmania!

Nothing is for sure yet, but if it all goes through, I'll be on a beach in Tasmania that an old couple (who've walked 900km over a couple of months! And made me feel mega lazy) recommended to me. Like I said, nothing is for sure, but if it all goes through, that would be primo!

Now, on to the main event. I left this Monday, and we've only stayed in a motor camps twice, done some seriuos 4x4 driving along the way. I even got to do some of the driving too! Apparently I did some pretty hard tracks, and even my travel partner thought I did a pretty good job. He felt that it was my initiation of fire. And boy, my nerves were a bit shook up afterwards, and made me want to buy my own 4x4 - straight away. The camping spots we stayed at were pretty amazing! Location location location. It did it all. Our first night was pretty crap, but it worked. Every other night after that (besides when at a motor camp that is) were freaking unbelievable. It really made you feel really small and in the middle of no where (it got me thinking about Deliverance). We didn't meet too many people when in the bush, but we did happen to drive past some though. We also found some pretty remote housing which were old farms. Got me thinking about what it would be like to live out there in the middle of the bush just farming and hardly meeting anyone. You'd have to be pretty self reliant and self sufficient. Crazy stuff. However, last night was probably the harshest yet. The wind was really howling along with some crazy rains and hails. We were in the Alps and above 1000 meters, which made the weather even more unpredicable. It also put my sleeping bag to the test, and it failed. Not miserably, but it wasn't as good as my military sleeping bag; same can be said about my tent too! It was sturdy and took the wind with out any problems, but since the weather was near winter weather, I would of preferred to have a 4 seasons tent to accomodate the changing environment. Oh! It was snowing yesterday! Can you believe it?! And the temperature yesterday was about 4.5 degrees or colder. Yeah, Oz isn't as warm as you thought it would be, eh? But I'm still loving it!

We've also explored two caves, both of which were pretty mean! One cave had water in it, resulting in me being completey wet (but it's good I was in there in my jandels) and the other one was dry cave. Instead, on the ground, was bat poo. Lots and lots of poo, along with bats all along the cieling. The bat cave I luckily went in with my shoes, but I always wore my jacket when I was in the caves, which was a pretty good stress test for it. That is one wicked jacket, thank you Marmot! Been heavily abusing my swim shorts too which seem always seem up to the task: swimming, diving, hiking, caving, construction work, etc. I think I have to write a thank you note to these companies or something.

I've seen quite a few kangaroos too, both on the side of the road and in the bush. We real came close to hitting one, but it was avioded. And at that point, it got me wishing I knew how to gut animals. Yes, sounds a bit psychotic, but if you've tried kangaroo, you would understand. Especially when the beef here tastes the way it does (read: not too great), having fresh roo would be choice!

As for the rest of my time here in Australia, not too sure what to do. I want to work on a farm or whatever to get my visa extended pretty soon, just to get it out of the way, and also to try to miss the tourist season. Funny, I know, a tourist who doesn't want to meet other tourist. And I'm really not too keen to work on a "backpacker" farm, becasue then you will definately be given a poor deal, and so I've been lucky and found out about a blueberry farm where you can get a minium wage instead of a provionsal pay (ie. by the basket I pick pay). Yet again, we'll see. It would give me a chance to maybe get myself physically fit for the paintball season which doesn't start until June/July. Good chance of me heading up north along the East coast to see what all the hubbub is about is in the plans too. One step at a time though. First step, get through this trip, and then figure out my Christmas plans.

Got a couple of more days on the road until I'm back in Sydney, and till then - smell ya later!

Edit: Got back today, but I tried to email this entry up, but no go. Sorry, will post another update later.

these days

I woke up, stretched a bit in my massive bed, and then contemplated what to do. And then it struck me: go for a swim. And so I did. I totally forgot what a morning dip can do to you. I feel pretty refreshed, and pretty good.

Today? I guess I'll be checking out Manly a bit closer, I think there are some small walks in the area that have some good potential.

Ah yes...life is grand.

beep beep!

Photos are up! More "arty" than usual.

Face/Off

Some small renovating of my blog, and well, going to make this short. Moved out of the hostel out to Manly Beach and living with my old friend Mr. P from Mexico!

Only a 100 steps from the beach, and I'm all good. Got my own double bed, en suite bathroom, free internet, free food (limited), big ass TV, good sound system, and oh, did I mention, 100 steps to the beach!

I'm lucky, I found the bonus ring that poor old Mario keeps on looking for. Hahaha sucker, beat ya to it!



View Larger Map

Got some more photos coming soon! Talk to ya later!

Quite the walk...and more to come \m/

So, been keeping myself pretty busy the past few days.

Yesterday, went to the Newtown Festival, which was pretty mean! It was it's 30th anniversary, and there was a mere gold coin donation required (read: entrance fee). Music was pretty sweet, and there was a lot of stalls there too. Before I had left, my brain was screaming to take out some cash for food, but I screamed back that if I ever got hungry, I'd go out and get some cash out of an ATM. Yeah, great plan Chris. None of the ATMs wanted to accept my Visa, but luckily, I had $4.20 and Hare Krsna had some vege nuggets for 4 bucks! I had a return ticket back into town, so I was set. Also, at the Festival, I met a CS host who was pretty cool. A girl from England whose set her heart on staying here by the sounds of it (not an uncommon thing to be hear over here :S).

And then I was a new web page I was told before I left called gumtree.com which is a site where you look for ride shares going around the country, and there I found a great travel opportunity! A Dutch guy was looking for some people to join him a road trip to the outback in his 4x4, and when I read this, I saw it as a sign, and contacted him straight away. We made a date and met up today out at Bondi Beach (to which I walked, and taking a detour through Centennial Park; 10-15km). He's a pretty sound guy, and I look forward to taking this road trip with him. He's a 32 year old unemployed engineer for disabled people equipment (like wheelchairs, winches, etc) who is trying to move here to Oz. He's done quite a bit of off-road driving, so hopefully I'll learn a thing or two from him during the trip. I finally asked him how long he guessed we would be gone for, and the answer I got was pretty surprising: 2 weeks! He said we'd be heading in the Canberra and then check out the surrounding area. I'm already wetting myself from excitement just thinking about it.

Also, my old friend from Mexico called me up today, and said I could come and crash at his parents place for a while over at Manly Beach. I'm going to try and meet up with him to see if we gel, and if it all works out, I'm definitely going. The hostel sign says no refunds, but I'm going to talk to them and if they still say no, I still might leave just to get to stay in house for a while. Apparently it's right on the beach, which is...how do I say this...F-ING AWESOME! But not hoping for anything at the moment. First step, meet him, and see what kind of character he's become, then I'll decide.

Here are some new photos to enjoy in the mean time. And Family Man has given me an assignment. He digs my photos, but feels that I need to stop putting my object in the center, start taking different angles, closer (real close), and try to compose my photos differently. Going to try this out, see if I can't get any better photos. This is exactly why I need to go into some sort of club when I settle down and learn some more about photography.

Ciao my friends!

PS. Love the people here, they're so friendly. A guy almost gave me cash for the bus cause he thought I didn't have enough. In Sweden, they would of thought, bummer for you bro, and then just gone about their business.

Kualas watch out, here I am.

So here I am in Australia, feels weird, but good. Another new adventure awaits me :D Rock'n'Roll!

Going to make this short as the internet time here is a bit more expensive.

Plans? Might be heading either up north to Byron Bay, or to the West Australia, or down south Melbourne. No definite plans.

What I do know though, is that I'm pretty excited about what lies ahead.

And so to start it all off, there is a new map out. It will be updated as I go along just like my NZ one.

And some new photos.

Speak to you soon!

PS- if you want my new phone number, just comment and I'll give it to you.

PSS- Might change the blog address to something more accommodating for my current situation. Will keep you posted, so don't worry :D

Hip to the Hop and over the Ditch I go to Oz

My current state: Good.

I went to the doctor today, and I've torn the cartilage on my chest plate connecting to my rib. Lung is good though. I've also got post concussion syndrome, but will ok. The doctor said to give it about a month to heal up properly.

I've closed my bank account today too, transfered all my money to my Swedish account. And just finishing up my final touches to my departure.

Awesome. Check out the new album I've put up here.

Self destruct mode activated. T-minus: 4 days.

Today I went kite skating. It was rad. It was wild.

First got to play around with a small kite which was tricky, but still mega awesome. Could do some easy jumps with it too.

Then we moved onto the big one. About 2x5 meters. It was massive. You need to wear a harness when you use it, and it ended up lifting me off the ground and throwing me into the ground face first more or less. I was bleeding from my nose, and I swear on anything that is holy. When I looked up, everything was exactly like a scenario I've dreamed about. It lasted for about 30 seconds, but every single little detail was EXACTLY like I had dreamed about. I had this dream quite a while back, but yeah, it was really weird. But I felt all of the sensations involved (read: pain). I hit my rib again, not cool at all.

Now my face is a scraped up a bit, my other leg has a wound on it, and my right elbow has a scratch on it too. Sweet as. Or not.

Also, my I noticed that my dive computer was broken a few weeks ago, and it got sent away for repair. Luckily the warranty still covers it, and so, in return, I'm getting a new model, but it's meant to replace my old one. Bloody mint. I love getting new stuff :D

Ok guys, I'm pretty beat (quite literally) at the moment. I'm gonna bounce (off the ground and into bed). Speak to you soon!

PS. Will post some more photos soon!

big sigh of relief

My flight is sweet. At first I was worried that I would have to leave on the 6th and not on the 7th, but I went to the immigrations office, and I'm all good. Aus is going to happen - legally.

Looking for couches to surf in Sydney, don't really want to go back to hostel just yet. Need a home feeling.

I'm doing good, a bit anxious about leaving, but pretty excited too. Blah.

Memories

Another day, another year, and more great memory to keep and share.

Somes/Matui Island
As I said before, I was going to spend the night between Saturday and Sunday out on the island in the harbor, and it was pretty sweet. It was worth missing the other events.
I got to learn some stuff about the Maori culture along with some Maori words :D

Mega cool. Did some free diving too (wet suit free, about 12-13 degrees, for maybe 20 minutes) and caught some kina and mussels.

Got some good photos, and got to feel the mighty power of the wind (45-50 knots).

Night of the 26th
I was working on the 26th, and when the clock struck midnight, two girls in the hostel walked into the TV room with a delicious cake for me :D It was mega yum!

25 on the 27th
Woke up, people were congratulating me, and it was my day off. Went to the Botanical Gardens by myself, hung out in The Tree (if you climb up to the top, the branches are so thick, you can lie down with out falling through, great view too), read a book under a tree, took some photos, got a sun burn on arms and face, and watched some Maori martial art.

Later went back to the tree to hang with some friends, when the time was nigh, went down to the hostel to get ready for my dinner. Had dinner at Lone Star, which was descent food. Ate with my friends and met a friend who I did a road trip with in the South Island. Got one of the best presents ever. I was truly speechless! It was a scrap book of photos from our road trip. Went out and had some beers, then we went to the local strip club, got a lap dance, and went home at around 4. Awesome!

29-30th
Went back to work for Ministry of Education, but this time, I scammed the system into giving me $18/hr instead of 16. I rule. Was asked if I wanted to work in the 31st, I said no, and when they asked if it was because I was tired of them, I said yes. Being honest rulez.

31st - 1st
On the 31st I did a small photo session on Mt. Victoria with some help from a girl at the hostel. I won't post them up until I've edited them the way I want. And to do that I need Photoshop.

Also went back to the swing to take some photos, and then when I tried to do it starfish style, I slipped and flew off. It hurt. I think that I've fractured a rib, and I've definitely bruised the greater part of my left side. Dad, don't worry, I'm ok. The only time the pain is unbearable is when I take very big breaths of air, or have to bend over. Besides that, it's sweet. I wasn't bleeding from my mouth, I didn't feel/hear any liquidity sounds while breathing, it's just really bruised. My photo "assistant" saw the whole thing and freaked. It was pretty funny to see her face.

I also got to borrow an ex colleagues car, and drove up to Taupo to do a sky dive. The last jump for the day was a 17.20. I got the car at 12.50. The drive is 5hr 19min according to Google Maps. I arrived to Taupo at 17.21. I rule again (@ 140km/hr). It got cancelled, went camping in the whop-whops.

Just look at my map to see where. It's the last entry, I tried to post it directly, but it's not working like I had hoped. At the camp I climbed a hill, which was pretty hard considering my physical state. But it was well worth the effort.

Camp site was mint, it was only me, and so I did some more photography.

Next morning (woke up at 05ish), after having woken up several times trying to sleep on my left side, not that pleasant. I drive into Taupo on a near empty tank, yay. I made it and waited out my time by driving around until I was meant to call the skydive to see if I could jump in the morning. No go. Too many clouds. I see this a plus, cause when if I jumped and when they pulled the shoot, I think I would of been in unmeasurable amounts of pain. Something I was willing to put up with.

Plan B goes into play: Napier. I start driving to Napier around 9am, and it took about two glorious hours along some great roads and scenery. I get to Napier, and I was seriously pissed off. And I mean really pissed off. The place was so amazing. Perfect size for me, right by the beach, it reminded me of Spain some how. The sun was out (which it usually is up there), and life was grand. I only had an hour in Napier before I had to continue my drive back to Wellington. Checkout a look out point, went into central, and bought a bagel for lunch. Yum. Spoke to a guy there who had been at Ngunguru (village next to Tutukaka) for 7 months. Lucky mofo, and a pretty chill dude too.

Finally get back to Wellington 20 minutes before my shift started. Drove very legally. I rulez again.

I get to work, ended at 22.30, and then went to party (after having shaved off my goat-tee for Movember).

I was only going to have a few beers cause I was meant to pick up the owner of the car from the airport at 09.00. Bugger that. Went to a costume party, found it boring, went to see another friend at gig, 10 bucks entry, go for it. Got pretty drunk, and crashed on a friend of a friends couch. Woke up at 08.17. I panic. I had to poo too. Go to the loo, tried to find my friend without opening any doors (other flatmates lived there too you see), didn't find her, so I hauled ass out of there. Went to a cash point, took out 100 NZD. Started running back to the hostel. It hurt to breath, but I went military and just sucked it up. While I was running I was planning my next move. I had a blip of thought of driving in my current state. I said no way in hell. I wanted to live and the people on the road with me. So, I get to the hostel, ask my colleague behind the reception to order cab. I run up to grab the car keys. I get on the street waiting for my cab. A friend comes out asking if I needed a ride somewhere. I ditch the cab, and he drives me to the airport. We get there, pick her up, and drive back to the hostel. She was in a state of her own (read: drunk). She drives off, I go to bed, I wake up, have pancakes, watch some BeetleJuice, remove some stitches off a friends shoulder, and now I'm here.

BOO YA! And that my friends and family, is the a pretty good summary of my past week. Choice cuz.

Check out the map, and some new photos are up.

I kind of like writing like this, it was fun. Intense feel to it...Or?

Hmmm....

Well, yet again, heaps of amazing sh#t is happening this Saturday:

1. Rugby finals
2. Hawaiian/Brazilian  Party
3. Some's Island
4. Minuit Concert

Now then, I could pull off 1, 2, and 4 in one night, it would be pretty hardcore, but I've dedicated myself to Some's Island for some traditional Maori fun. I hope. I really want to go to the concert and party, AND the rugby game pretty bad. But rugby is in Oz, women are worldwide, and Minuit are well, yeah, another band? No, I don't know know.

However, a good traditional Kiwi weekend, nothing that comes around to every backpacker you know. And it's been part of my plan this whole trip. Now, no doubt I've been hanging out with quite a bit of Kiwi's during my time here, but not any Maori's. Yeah, I don't really know how to explain it, but you probably know what I'm trying to say.

Oh, and I checked out the new MacBook, oh yes, it's pretty sweet. I just might get it, but we'll see.

It's over...

My job that is. I was let go today for working too fast (I finished the work faster than expected). Who would of thought?

Now? Either try and work for 3 days, or just chill...I think I'm going to chill, and do some exploring.

We'll see.

Other than that. I'm happy.

:D

Yum

Went scallop diving today, which was quite a treat. Saw nothing but silty sand. Yay. Gathered 12 scallops with my dive buddy, so I got my share of 6 and prepared them in butter, garlic, white wine and salt. Yummy.

Other than that, all is good.

Breaking News

I've booked my plane ticket to Sydney: November 7th.
I bought my iPod for only 1700 SEK!
I talked my boss into giving me a week longer.
I have to ban another person from the hostel (a cool guy too). Lame.

That's it. Going to miss this place sooo much!

iPod or iPoop as Ruffus would say

It's bloody amazing man! The battery is a lot better and it works like a charm. Yay!

I re-read Military Mode and realized how many grammatical errors I made. I guess I was reliving it while I was writing it.

That's it.

Military Mode

What a night I had last night! And not in the good way either. People wanted to cook when I was trying to clean the kitchen, and I made it pretty clear that it was closed and that they were too late. I was rude to one girl, and a cool guy too.



When my shift was done and I was watching a movie (half sleeping too) I was disturbed by a guest that his room mate has wet his bed. Great. Absolutely great. I jump too, couldn't give two shits cause I was off the clock. I go upstairs too look at him, I wake him up, and ask him what's going on. He being too plastered to make any sense what so ever just pissed me off and I said they can sort it out in the morning and just to deal with it. I refused to give him new sheets too. His room mate was being persistant if there was another room available for him to sleep in; we were fully booked, no go. So I run back down to the movie and resume my previous position on the couch. A couple of minutes later the same guy comes back down and says that the bed wetter is in the shower now and he requested some sheets. I gave in and gave them to him, and he expected me to change them for him. I told him that the pisser should change his own sheets. This time I had had enough and decided to try talking to the guy again to see if would make any sense after taking a shower. I was pretty much all up in his face, giving him sh*t for being a complete twat and that he should get his act together. He then throws the option of him leaving into the air, I say go for. I try to tell him that he's not going to get away with pissing the bed, and that I need his Credit Card. He obviously doesn't know who I am, and keeps on telling me that he's leaving. He gives me a light push and says that I should get out of his face. I then inform him that I'm the manager and that I was simply doing my job (in a very hard militant manner). I tell him that he is going to give me his credit card before his leaves and that he doesn't really have a say in the matter (I was pretty worked up and was thinking about getting physical with this douche bag). I was being pretty intense and in his very personal space, making him feel very uncomfortable (he was quite a bit smaller and skinnier than I am), he begins to shake and I eventually get the credit card, run down stairs and make a copy of it. Give it back to him and escort him out of there. He was constantly apologizing (I accepted one of them cause of the weaker side of me) during the whole ordeal, but he got what he deserved. His room mate was feeling like shit now for having some sort of part in having him kicked out felt I was crossing the line in how I was handling the situation and thought it was stupid to throw out a drunk into wellington at 00.00. I said that it's his problem and not mine. When he left the door, I said "Good luck" and closed the door behind him. End of that.



Apparently I woke up some people who were sleeping and in the rooms around me when I talking to this guys (talking = using my loud voice). Meh...I wasn't a happy camper when I went to bed, so I listened to some Mitch Hedberg and fell asleep to it. It was great.

That was it, talk to you later guys!

Yesterday

Was a long day. Started it off with some Scuba Diving, then went back to the hostel to sort out my birthday present to myself. It starts with i and ends with Pod Classic 120GB. But I didn't sort it all due to limitations on the computers at the internet cafe. Bastards. However, I got a lot of songs from a friend here and will go to another friend to use his computer to sort it all out. Yay me!

Oh yeah, I got it with and engraving:

- = AwesoMenesS = -
ollie.olsson

It makes me weep every time I look at it :D

Played pool with G last night too, which was a joke. I pocketed all my balls, going for the 8, and then when I hit it, the white ball ricochets into a pocket before the 8, making me lose. I did this twice in a row, and then she won a match with her own skill. And then I pulled off a point in the last match. 3-1 disgraceful.

I might get to see the Big C from Paihia tomorrow. He's coming down for a visit, so that'll be nice.

Ok, gotta bounce to my next boring, time consuming iPod-fixer-upper gig. L8er!

It's the end of days for me...

..and my wicked cooking. How come you may ponder? My David's BBQ Rub is out. It's a very sad time for me and my cooking, but I'm sure I'll pull through some how. I'm thinking about contacting the store and seeing if they do international orders. That'd be pretty bad ass.

On other news, I contacted an old team mate of mine whose moved up to Piteå again. And he's 20 (I think), married, and he's *drum roll* going to be a dad. Yup, a dad. I flipped when I read it in his reply back to me and called him straight away. I just can't believe it.

So, J&E when are we going to hear some great news?

*Blub blub blub*

I just got back from a night dive down in Island Bay, and wow, it was fantastic! We got a bit lost, but bugger it! I got to swim back looking at the sunset and waves. The viz was ok, but nothing too spectacular. Not like the Poor Knights.

It's exactly what I needed after sitting on my ass in the office and in the hostel for so long. Bad ass!

I'll be sleeping well tonight :D But before I do, I'm going out to say "See Ya Later" to someone who's leaving NZ.

Bye-dee-Bye

11? Don't you mean 6?

Yesterday was a "big" day, yesterday was my 11 month anniversary for being here NZ. 11 months guys, wow...feels like it's only been 6.

Other Headlines

• Today, I'm going swimming.
• Weather is great.
• Getting photos developed for my grandparents (35 photos).
• I was about to murder someone last night, because a) Didn't eat until very late (and burnt my rice in the process) b) Bloody backpackers left one hell of a mess in the kitchen.
• Want a new camera.

Okay guys, just wanted to post about the 11 month anniversary. See ya!

Great news!

I've been granted my Working Holiday Visa for Australia now, which is AMAZING!!! WooHoo!!! Now I'll be able to fullfil my dream of wrestling with a kangeroo (just kidding)!

So now I have to figure out where I want to fly into. I'm pretty sure I'll jump over to Sydney first to say hi to some people I haven't met in...wow...over a decade now I reckon, easily.
_________

Otherwise the weather today was absolute crap, it was just about tropical rain fall today (it looked awesome through the window though). And then we had a movie weekend Friday-Sunday, and all three movies that had been rented, had depressing ending. Very depressing. But good none the less. We watched The Mist, Halloween: Retribution (2007), and Atonement. I can recommend them all.

Did a small photography session the other day, got some ok shots, nothing too spectacular. Been trying to figure out what my strong and weak points are, and the only conclusion I can come up with is that I need to be with a photographer who knows something about photography to point out my flaws.

Going swimming this Wednesday and I've volunteered to help out at the local dive club which should hopefully get me free dives + experience. Looking forward to it :D


Ok, guys, gonna go now, talk to you later!

Play - Rewind - Repeat

Another week has started here for me here in Wellington, and this morning was a real b**ch. Why you ask? My phone, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to change it's time by one hour forward. Having made this Supreme Decision, it ended up my alarm clock going off an hour earlier than intended. What a great start to my day - Yay. I got up no being any the wiser until I crawled into the kitchen where we have another watch, and it was an hour behind - I check my watch, same as the wall. DAMN! I eat some breakfast, and then stumble my way back into bed to get an extra 30 minutes rest.

I'm completely destroyed from yesterday. I went to the local swimming pool to get some excerise with some people from the hostel (felt grrrreat), did some laps and then bumped in CE from Budapest. I met him when I was in Tutukaka, and now I'm going to try to get some DiveMaster work done here. I wouldn't get paid, but it's good for experience. I should of done this a long time ago, but better late than never, eh?

And then people at the hostel were being, how to be PC about this? Demanding? They were just being normal people, and I just had to do my job. I just had to do it a bit more this time around. But what really f**ked me off was when two customers came to me complaining about their beds, they said that their beds weren't made and that someone had been sleeping in it. I've encountered this once, so I go to investigate. I get into the room, identify their two beds without asking them, and then the couple what the problem was. They then start to say that the beds didn't look like that when there were last there. After having made a few beds in different hostels, you quickly learn what a used bed looks like and also how the sheets feel like. Someone had sat in their bed and disturbed the "tightness" of a fresh sheet, therefore, it was dirty. I didn't have the energy to argue with them, so I just changed ALL of the sheets, duve covers, etc for them. I hope people in the room were loud and snored all night. And then another person came to me when I had clearly stopped working and shut down the office to get a wash token (I was sitting 1 meter away from the office door with the key on me, but it's a matter of principal), I told him that I was off the clock, but since I've known him for a while now, and it was his last night before his big journey I said uncle and got him a token.

Bah. Yeah. I need to get some sort of adrenaline based sport going again so I get some of this energy out. If only paintball was a bit bigger here, then I'd have a good outlet for my energy. Damn.
________________

I watched an awesome movie the other night, it was called The Mist. Holy hell man. The ending to that movie was absolutely brilliant. The movie itself was pretty good, but the ending - daaaamn. I would hate to be put into that situation. Not cool, not cool at all. Watch it.

Currently reading a book by one of my idols: Henry Rollins called Get in the Van, which is his diary printed from when he was with his band Black Flag, from 1981 to '86. Intense stuff.

Aight, gonna bounce. Speak to you soon.

Oh, mega keen on getting the new Nikon D90. I would most likely buy it in Oz if I have a lump of cash loaded away. It's a wicked camera (first DSLR to record movies) :D

Oz ho!!!

I've applied for my Working-Holiday Visa for Australia now, it set me back 195 AUD, but well worth it.

And so, my journey shall continue in almost a month, and boy am I nervous. You would think that I've gotten used to this whole traveling thing, but Wellington has become my home, I've built a little niche here and now I'm going to be leaving it :( This is the same feeling I had when I left Sweden and when I left Dunedin to go up to Mt. Cook. I couldn't stand the thought having to leave my stuff amongst strangers, it's so annoying. You don't know if they're trust worthy or what not (yes I know, they're thinking the exact same thing about me). But it's all part of the deal, no isn't it.

The past week, I've had a mega cruisey time at work. The longest I've worked until has been 15, and then I got to go home at 13 today. But here's the best part, I get paid until 17.00 or whenever as long as I get my 8 hours. My boss doesn't care, she's a really laid back person. And another one of the people there has invited me out to a house that she works at on an island in the middle of the harbour, so I'm going to try and jump out there some how when she's around. Apparently it's a whole group of people and I'll be able to get some free lodging and kai (Māori for food). It'd be good fun if I could get out there, and she mentioned something about a hangi too! This is when they prepare the food underground. I ate some of this at the Māori village in Rotorua, but I want to watch them make it from start to finish. Learn a thing or two before I leave. She was pretty surprised that I had eaten so many local dishes and thought I was almost a Bro (here in NZ, Māori's call each other Bro or Cuz most of the time - but not everyone does it). I thought that was a pretty funny comment.

Oh, and I received two packages today! One from Mom with my DM card, and another from a guy I met in Paihia, Mr. Eastwood (alias) and in it was a book about Henry Rollins, CD2 from his Think Tank album, along with The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson. Today was a small Christmas for me :D

Alright happy people, I must depart! I shall speak to you soon!

Flight Plan & other randoms

Well, just thought I'd post a flight plan on S'n'M now that I have some time on my hands...trying to save it to my map, but it doesn't want to :(

Also, check this link out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Culture_Kids

This is a bit late I know, but I have a lot of time on my hands (and I'm getting paid for it too).


View Larger Map

S'n'M - again.

This time, I'm not talking about Sebbe'n'Mike.
Nej, this is my little trip to a gay bar that a guy at the hostel wanted to take us to.

Just look at the photos here. It was a great night!

Enjoy!

PS- I'm still playing for the straight team, don't worry!

PSS - WALL-E was freaking AMAZING! One of the best movies I've seen this year!

Sthcore Beavis!!!

I started my new assignment today, and all I have to say is: Hells Yeah!

I have my own office, sweet computer, simple as pie job, and a view over the harbor. I'm going to take my camera with me, so I can take a photo of it and show you.

So what do I do you ask? Well, the uni lost heaps of info from their server for a survey they did over their teachers, and now I just have to call the teacher, ask them how many students they had in the term, and how long it took them to teach that class. I then start a new batch using those two pieces of info, and then punch in each students review into the computer. A review is a piece of paper where the student checked a box saying if they were Happy, Unsatisfied, etc. with the teachers result. On average, 9 boxes per paper. So, I just create a new form, and fill it all in manually. Piece of piss. I have internet access, no stress on getting all the info in, very flexible working hours, 7 minute walk there (4-5 minute walk back home cause it's downhill). All for 17 NZD/hr. I think about people who are working in a restaurant or something similar, really working hard, for maybe only 12NZD. I love being able to type. WOOHOO!

Ok, guys, gonna head off now, just wanted to write this little update for you. Life is great, and I'm looking forward to watching Wall-E by Pixar.

Hey to the ho!

Damn guys, I've been in front of this computer for quite a while now trying to get some new music and making copies of it too. DAAAAMN!!!

Ok, put up some new photos in Island Bay folder, and also, I finally got to see this video, something that you should definitely watch too:

Happy Days

Great news people on the other side of the world! I'm going to be able to start saving some serious money now! I've scored a job at the hostel to work at the reception in the evenings for free accommodation and free laundry. So I would be working for only 3-4 days a week, about 5 hour shifts, making it a total of about 15-20 hours a week. It changes every other week, so that'll allow me to save up about 4500SEK in 6 weeks. Repeat after me: Freakin' Awesome! Also, that will prohibit me from drinking on my shifts, so that will allow me to save up even MORE money. This is all working out to my favor, so far at least. I just have to make sure that the temp agencies have work for me all the time, so I don't have down times or anything like that.

As some of you know too, I've been sick for the past couple of days. I was struck with the flu, I think. I had an aching body, and I just felt like complete crap. But now I'm back to about 95% of my original health, sweet! Other than that, my health is pretty good. I wish I could get some food that I could easily get back home, like salmon and burgel. They don't have burgel here! It pisses me off so freakin' much, it's border line insanity! And cheap fish is almost impossible to find too, so lame.

I was out on a small field trip during the weekend out to Island Bay which is in the very south of Wellington, and it was an amazing day, got some decent shots with my trusty D40, so I'll try and post those ASAP.

In the mean time, you'll just have to be content with this miniature update, I'll try and do something a bit more productive in the weekend. I have a feeling I'll be living in front of a computer most of Saturday burning a girls iPod on DVD's (mine is full, but I think I'll upgrade when I have the money to, so in Oz most likely, we'll see).

Ok my peeps and blog followers, I'll write for you later!

Viva con su corazon.

Or something like that.

Hi all, I'm currently at the hostel writing this, and all is peachy.

I don't really know what to write to all of you. I guess I'll just try and splurge my thoughts into this post.

For a while now I've been thinking a lot about this whole traveling business, and it's fucking awesome, hands down. But there are some mega set backs, set backs I'm willing to accept, because I don't really have any other choices.

What am I talking about you ask, well, it concerns all of you back home. No, please don't take this in a negative manner, i don't see how you could unless I completely screw up in expressing myself. Here goes.

As it looks right now, I'm going to be gone for quite some time. There is a good chance I'll be back in August for Herk and Big-E's wedding (Mega Kudos). And I don't think I could stay any longer than a month before I would have to turn around and continue my travels (unless something else came around and needed my direct attention/presence). But just saying that, I think I'll be gone for almost 3 years or longer, I don't know, I have no plans, only dreams/ideas (I'm living my dream at the moment, so now it's more of a question if I want to continue it or wake up and face the real world). And so I put myself in the position of arriving back home and seeing how things have changed and how you, my friends have changed. Those who are my friends, are my friends, and when we meet again, it's not going to be any different than from the day I left on this crazy adventure. I know this. But at the same time, I wonder if it's going to be like meeting a new group of people and then they would be talking about things you don't have freakin' clue of what to comment on. Like, for some of you, I'm a mutual friend to one of your friends (eg. Sebbe, Chris, Liv, Annika, etc), and so there would be 3+ years that I would of "missed" out on. But I won't be able to do that. Because all the things I'm experiencing here will be with people I will only be able to meet every few years, or via Facebook, or never again.

This is a pretty trippy post. I don't know what got me to write about this, but it's just something that's been on my mind and I felt it to be pretty good for you guys to read/think about.

Please don't start thinking that I'm getting depressed, because I'm anything but. I'm surrounded by great people who are always willing to listen to any problems I have or deep thoughts that I have and are just too crazy not to let go.

On the brighter side, here's a list of media to get into:

Surrender by Billy Talent (song)
F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X. by Fall of Troy (song)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (book)
Brothers on a Hotel Bed by Death Cab for Cutie (song)
The Foutain (movie)
Get Fighted by Alexisonfire (song)
Horton Hears A Who (movie, pay attention to fluffy yellow thing, best character ever)
Jpod by Douglas Coupland (book, already mentioned a while back, but must be mentioned again)
Chaos by Mute Math (song)
The Otherside of the Crash/Over and Out (of Control) by Thursday (song)
The Lovesong Writer by Thursday (song)
Sleeping Sickness by City and Colour (song)
Love Don't Live Here Anymore (Rose Royce cover) by City and Colour (song)

Update-nano

I'm currently working for the Ministry of Education doing data entry. Not too sure how long I'll be there for, it could for maybe 2 weeks or more. Nothing too sure just yet.

I've been to the zoo which was a lot of fun, and Mike came back down to Wellington from Auckland for a night en route to Nelson. Good on him.

Posted some photos on my Picasa album from the Zoo, and here's a video from S'n'M that Sebbe filmed.



Random.

Enjoy!

S'n M

S'n M is what I decided to call this road trip after Sebbe and Mike who were with me. It was heaps of fun!

On their arrival, a friend of mine who works for Weta Digital help me pick them up from the airport and then we went to where he works and showed us the massive Nasgul and Wraith that Peter Jackson had installed there. Pretty bad ass.

Once we got to the hostel, checked them in, and then my mission began: Operation Piss Up!

The title says it all I would think. Yeah, won't go into too much detail, but I completed my mission!

The following day we just hung out in Wellington and showed them around and did the real touristy stuff.

On Monday we got on the ferry and went down to the south island. This trip to the south island was excellent! I didn't have to do all the driving! So I could finally sit back and enjoy the scenery! Woohoo!

We went to Nelson - Franz Josef - Wanaka - Queenstown - Manapouri - Milford Sound - Catlins - Dunedin - Christchurch.

This is more or less the same route that I did with the German girl I met in Nelson, but then I did it in the summer whereas it's winter here now, so everything looked a tad bit different, if not better!

I was meant to do a sky dive in Queenstown, but the weather was just crap, so I had to cancel it, mega boohoo!!!

The only way I can really sum up the trip is with the word awesomeness!


What's happening now? Start working again and prepare myself for the Disturbed concert in September! And guess who else is going to be playing P.O.D. Yes, Herk (my brother) I am going to see P.O.D. live :D

Mega fast!

New Photo's under S'n'M

You should be able to find them! See'ya!

Longer blog will be posted ASAP!

Awesomeness + Badosch = Today

I went to the Botanical Gardens the other day with some people from my hostel and it was very nice! Super chill and amazing weather. Got some nice shots, and had some good carrot cake. However, was sooooo (if I wanted to use all the appropriate o's you'd need another 2 days to read it out) sweet! I didn't work today because yesterday was my last day on assignment at the construction site, so I decided to take the day off and think things through. As usual, that didn't happen, instead, something much much cooler happened. I thought I'd find a spot outside to do some thinking, and I was asking some people around the hostel where to go, and one of the managers told me to go to Owhiro Bay and check out the seal colony there. And with the weather being so amazing, I thought that'd be a really good idea. So, I just took what I had with me, a dead iPod, almost empty phone, book, 2x apples, water, Bombay mix, camera, and 1x 2GB memory. I was ready to go. I thought I go to the internet cafe and charge up my iPod and write some in my blog before I left, I waited outside of the cafe for a couple of minutes thinking they would open soon, but they didn't. I checked out another one, but it was a bit more expensive, and thought to hell with it, I don't need my iPod. I call the bus service and asked them how to get to Owhiro Bay, they give some directions, and I follow them. Like, a hour before the times they gave me. But whatever, it was a great day. I jump on the first bus and jump off where I have to and find out that the next bus isn't for another hour. I ask a local for some directions and he just tells me to follow a road straight along, so I follow it. I walked for maybe 30 minutes when I stumbled across something pretty awesome: a wrought iron art gallery. It was freakin' amazing! I met one of the owners who showed me the indoors or one of their studios, and it was just collection of random stuff, and I mean random! Just check out the photos. It's a must see if you have time. The coolest thing about that room was that the ceiling was covered with old vinyl records - so cool! And the iron art was pretty bad ass too! After spending about 20-30 minutes there taking photos and appreciating the art, I make my way towards the beach, I get there about 20 minutes later. It was so frikkin' nice to see the sea again in a small town environment, and to celebrate, I bought some ice cream (in the sun, I could wear a t-shirt and shorts) :D

I then find the beach and start walking towards the colony, and the beach was so beautiful. As is everything here in NZ. After walking for maybe 10 minutes, I see a rock sticking out of the water and tell myself that I had to climb it, so I did and I got the feeling I got when I first arrived to NZ again, it was amazing. Better than the feeling of love in my opinion. Yeah man, speechless.

I climb down and start making my way again, and I see a hardcore 4x4 LandRover with it's roof down and all black coming up behind me. Two people are in it, about my age, and I start to think "I want to ride in that bad ass!" I hesitate, but then I lift up my thumb. They stop and look at each while driving past, but brake 5 meters ahead of me. My spirit is as high as a kite this point. It was photography student with her friend who were out on a mission to take some photos for her course. Awesome, someone to get some info about my camera. I didn't ask her everything, just white balance questions, and I got my answer: light gray.

We got over a hill and then we saw HEAPS of seals, and I mean HEEEAAAAPS!!! There must of been at least 50-60 of them there on the rocks. And boy did it smell like CRAP! But the cuteness of the seals made up for it.

After hanging out with them we drove a bit further down the beach to a little bay where she gets into a wet suit and jumps in the water. Theme: looking sporty. It was random. After that was all done, we drove a bit further along the beach towards the seal colony, but it was ages away. So we just turned around and headed back into town. And guess what, I got to drive the Land Rover! It was amazing! Now I REALLY want one! The stuff he drove through was pretty intense, something TM (haven't seen that for a while, eh?) wouldn't of have handled, that's for damn sure!

We exchanged phone numbers and emails and hopefully I'll be meeting them again some time, cause they were some cool as people!

Hate to hurry off the blog like this, I'm going to meet a friend for pool and didn't want leave this blog for another day.

Here are some photos for you to enjoy! Unsorted

Dilema

I'm currently in a sticky predicament with my jobs. Nothing bad has happened, but something could happen. What I'm referring to is that I've been offered jobs with the office temp agency and they pay better, but I'm more or less a permanent laborer on the construction site that I'm currently on. I like the foreman there, but I hate the pay:work ratio involved, it's a freaking joke! I've already left the site once for the other job, and I felt like crap having to bend the truth to the foreman as to my absence. I didn't tell I what I was doing, until he asked me, and I didn't tell him it was with a completely different company either. As most of you know, my moral/ethical compass is very strong at times and I hate being a dick, but as I see, I'm a backpacker, so I can put a magnet under the compass and make it point in my North. I don't know. I was thinking about approaching the foreman and explaining the situation, because I think he understands, but at the same time, would be a real drag if he told me to burn in hell and then makes my company fire me...not cool.

Besides that small predicament, the following has happened. I've watched Batman: The Dark Knight twice, one day after another; partied; taken some photos; and finally accepted the fact that I hate women (No! I'm not going gay!). It's just too long to explain, it's just that I finally believe in what Chris kept on telling me when I was in Sweden: Women's nature is like a rotwiler's, it CANNOT be trusted. Blah!

Ok, gonna bounce now, talk to you later!

Mellard = Sick in French Part 2

As I last had mentioned, I went up to Paihia to visit the Big C and see what was new. What can I say? Paihia was pretty dead, but it was really nice to be back. It felt like I had come back home in some odd sense. Can't really explain it, but you might understand, eh? Didn't really do much while I was there except for go out on the piss every night with Cam and just chat (read: hang out and drink beer). Super nice. Also, got to help him out with a pick-up with his water taxi, just like old times :D

I just remembered I told him I'd sent him some photos that I took a while back...and I forgot - DAMN!!! Oh well, I'll sort that out later. Now I feel like crap.

I digress. The last night out was really nice because it was Jam Night at the BeachHouse which is usually a lot of fun. Random people come down and play some tunes with instruments provided and some of the people there could really Jam man, hard too. It was a good way to end my little side trip.

The next morning, I woke up early and got ready to hitch hike down to Wellington. I knew it was going to be a long day, but my hopes were high and I was ill prepared (ie, I didn't have any i-am-stuck-in-whops food). Awesome. I got a ride from my boss to an ideal place to get picked up from, or so she thought. After waiting about 15 minutes, and feeling like I was going no where, I picked up my gear and make a walk up the hill with my sign out by my side. Once I reached up to the top of the hill, I saw a car pulling out of a side street and I gave a big smile and held up my sign to him. He waved me on! It made my day that much brighter considering that it was starting to rain. The guy had just moved back from Europe where he had been a stock broker and rugby player, quite an interesting story. He could only take me as far as Kawakawa, which isn't too far away, but every kilometer counts, right? After waiting for about 3-5 minutes another car picks me up, sweet!

Before I continue, I have to go back a little to the start of my morning. When I was making my sign, I had decided to write only South on one side and Welly on the other in hope that people would pick me up quicker and not think "I'm not going to Wellington, good luck pal." Well, I scored, big time. I jump in the car, he asks where I'm heading, and before I get to answer, he sees the back of my sign and says that I'm a lucky bastard. I asked him why, and he said because he was heading to Wellington. You have no idea how relieved I was when I heard this - I could of kissed the guy.

And was this guy a character or what?! We had to get some gas and empty the car of trash in good old Whangaz (Whangarei). I helped him out and then he started to look for all 3 of his phones, he only found 2 of them. He thought that he had left it at home, but was pretty sure that it had been in his car. We start calling it, but we couldn't hear anything. After some thinking, we start calling again, but in a different location - the trash can. "RING RING!!!" Score! We got it. We start heading down the road again and did this guy talk, man was he talkative. He told me heaps of random stories and asked me a bunch of questions. He also warned me that he had to do some shopping along the way in Auckland. We were going to pick up a body kit for his car (Sky Line), a fridge for his engine, a queen sized bed his mom had bought but forgot to mention, and some toy cars. It was going to be a long day - all part of the adventure!

First stop: picking up the fridge. It looked like a grill up front, but apparently you use it to cool your motor down even more, I think.

Second stop: Queen size bed. I was wondering how we were going to pull this off without having to kick me out of the car, but the guy said it would be sweet. We would just have to strap the bed to the roof. Awesome! We get there, and meet the sellers and they are some of the nicest people I've ever met. Happy little family with two kids, and one bad ass fire truck that they had pimped out! They colored it black and white like zebra...just look at the photo ;D


They had installed a bunch of speakers and they're currently looking for sponsorship to have a Playstation or Xbox installed too. This isn't for they're own pleasure, they use it for charity events and just drive kids around, really cool! Anyway, when I was done slobbering over this beast, we checked out the bed that we were meant to pick up, and I was told that it would be taken apart, but when I saw it, I almost shat myself. It was a complete queen size bed minus the mattress. I all of a sudden thought I would have to find another ride. But the owners quickly said that they left in tact so the buyer could see how to put it back together again. After dissembling it, and strapping it to the roof and placing some pieces in the car, it was all good to go!

Third Stop: Toy cars. We were looking for a small Asian shop, but instead came to a real car dealer run by a not so very nice woman, but yeah, not going to waste time on her. No real story here, except that the toy cars were for his dead son. He put cars on his tomb every month I think it was, and these are some that he had found pretty cool, so he bought them.

Fourth Stop: Skyline Body Kit. I knew this was going to be big, but not entirely sure of how big. Well, it was massive. We strapped it to the roof and put some in the car. The front fend was first put on top of the car so it looked like we were the frikkin Flintstones with a massive rib on the roof! Awesome!

This was the end result:



I don't remember what time we left there, most likely 15.30ish. The drive down was about 10 or so hours. Yippy. It was a nice drive down, jamming with his stereo system and MASSIVE sub he had rigged into his car. I bought him drinks during the ride and some food. And then he bought me food too in exchange for using my rope to strap the stuff to the roof. During the trip, we passed through the desert road which had snow in it which made the ride a bit more exciting. Nothing happened, and I trusted his driving - no other choice.



And I climbed up an airplane that had been closed off and was the main airplane for Cookie Time cookies.


So, I was on top of the main fuse lodge. Yes, dad, it was dangerous, that's why I was careful with my every movement. Couldn't really get a good photo of me on top of it...so...blah. Yeah.

We finally arrived to Wellington at 03 in the morning, and I was completely shattered. I wanted to check into Rosemere backpackers, but I knew that they were closed, so I had MSGF help me out with that one. He snuck me into Nomads, and I slept on a bed that was free :D I then had to sneak out again before 10 and they had to clean the room.

_____________________


That was my trip down! Since then, I've been working with the construction temp agency and it's a killer of job. Heavy lifting and just all around hard out. I lift everything correctly, straight back, using my legs, but I have a small pain in the right side of my back. I'm going to try to get a massage for it and see if it helps. I'm also trying to get some more work through my other temp agency this is mainly office work, but they keep on telling me that they don't have any work, which is BS cause a friend of mine who also works through them gets heaps of offers all the time. So lame. Meh.

Besides the work side of life, I'm doing okay. I really miss MSGF, we had some good times together. I'm making some friends at Rosemere right now, which is good, and I still know some people down at Nomads, so I'm not completely alone. One thing I do miss is the Swedish summer and hanging out at the park. I'll get to do that in a while though I guess, eh? It all depends on what's going to be happening with everything. We'll see.

Ok guys, that's it, I'll talk to you later, have a good one till then! Check out the albums, there may be new photos that I haven't posted or mentioned!

En Route

I'm writing a massive blog right now, taking some time...sorry! Should be done very soon!

New folder in the my photos! FART 08! And some in Random, and me...ok, gotta bounce guys!

Mellard = Sick in French (Part 1)

Ok guys, this is going to be a big one, here goes :D

As I've mentioned, I was going to partake in a road trip going from Wellington all the way up to Auckland, code named: F.A.R.T. '08 (F*cking Awesome Road Trip 2008) click link for a map. On this wild adventure was My Special German Friend (MSGF) and The Sh*tting Dutchman (TSD). Both of these names will be explained - later.

We had planned this trip about 2-3 weeks ago, and well, it all seemed hopeless. The rental companies didn't hire out camper vans down here in Wellington - except for one! Backpacker Rentals. We got a quote on one campervan, the Nomad which was a sweet deal, cheaper than the other campervans which were smaller even! And when we went to pick it up, we were given a nice surprise - they gave us the wrong one! Instead, we got the Wanderer for a small extra price too, but something we were willing to pay. This beast made us 100% self sufficient! And boy, it was a real beast. It had a 3.5L engine, and weighed a ton...or more. I don't actually think I was legally allowed to drive it, but hey man, we had a blast! And something that really bummed me out, the company demanded that my driver's license be in English, so instead, I went to the Swedish consulate and had a translation made for 40 NZD, no biggy. But here's what really f'ed me off, when I went to pick up the van, they didn't even ask to see it! Not even hinted at it! Did I ask them about it? I sort of hinted at it, but no, they weren't all to fussed about it. Lame! But whatever, I was determined not to let that get me down.

Our first destination was New Plymoth, we didn't really know what was going to be up there, but we all had decided to head on up there and see what happened. Well, how can I put this...empty. There's not a whole lot to see up there, but I thought that I would of been able to score us a place to crash for the night (real toilet and shower) for that night through a friend I met up in Paihia, but I didn't have his number, when I thought I did the whole time. So, we went to Pak'n Save and bought our selves some food for our first dinner, and of course, beer. Yum! We ended up driving a bit west of NP and found a nice spot next to an oil refinery, right next to the beach, as you can see on the map. When we parked up, we were looking for signs saying anything about us not allowed to camp there, but after no signs were found, we settled right on it. After about 2 minutes of being in the van, we noticed what a sail our van was and how bloody windy it was outside. Imagine being in a bed where people are having sex ALL the time, yeah, that's how it felt the whole damn night.

It was a real chill night (and cold) and the morning was even better! We were greeted with an amazing view when we opened up the rear doors and we could see some small peaks in the water and the beautiful sunrise!
Yeah bro, it was noice! We then walked down to the beach and had a small photo session and just enjoyed the morning sea breeze - unforgettable! This beach was just amazing, I can't really explain why, it was just...gah!!! You'll just have to be there. Just being there with friends and being on the road again, unbeatable. And on the walk back to the van, we saw a double rainbow!!!

We headed back to Pak'n Save and bought ourselves a meat platter for 20NZD (SUPER CHEAP!!!) which had some sausages, minced meat, chicken, schnitzel, and beef fillet. Our dinners for the next couple of days was sorted.

Next stop: Taupo. The drive out there was just amazing (as is everything here :P). After consulting the map which would be the most adventurous, we took the back roads which led us to Mt. Damper falls. You needed to cross a muddy as sheep field to get to the falls, and man, were we muddy, but it was fun as shit! Check out the photo! We ended up crashing a bit outside of Taupo in Mission Bay, which is just a rest stop where we tried to hide our mini-tank behind some trees. I don't think it was too well concealed, but we woke up lying next to Lake Taupo, which, yet again, was another sweet way to wake up. :D

Before we had gone to bed, we had discussed what to do the following day, and we had decided to go on a boat cruise to see some modern Maori rock carvings, and then check out the Huka Falls - RIGHT after we had had some nice breakfast in town. We ended up having some pancakes which were absolutely amazing! A bit expensive, but well worth the money! The rock carvings were pretty sweet, sadly we couldn't get to close to them with the ferry because of the swell we had that day, but I feel I got some relatively good photos of them.

Our journey was going to take us North towards Rotorua, and on this night, we had decided to crash at a motor camp just so we could take a proper shower and so MSGF and TSD could watch the European Finals: Germany vs. Spain. Nothing too special happened this night. Meh. We woke up and headed back down SH5 towards Waiotapu so TSD could check out the thermal pools while in the mean time MSGF would do something else.

We saw a sign to a volcanic valley which looked sweet, but when we found out that there was a 30 buck entry fee, we changed our minds. We then headed down the road until we came to a lake and decided to have some lunch there. While we were waiting for the food to cook, MSGF began to harass the local chicken population by saying some pretty random stuff which I don't plan to repeat. It was pretty damn funny! Once TSD was done in Waiotapu, we went and picked him up and decided to make a quick detour Hobbiton, but when we found out it was 75bucks and we missed the last tour, we thought otherwise (yes, we were a bit stingy, I know). Adjusted our compasses and began heading up North to a town I remember driving past with Mom and the Troll when they came to visit me: Tairua. It was pretty dark driving up, and my personal Magelan wasn't paying attention as to where we were going, so i took a wrong turn and then had to do a U-turn. Ended up me pulling up to poor hitchhiker, giving her false hope, and then quickly driving away from her in the direction we came from. MSGF and TSD are still teasing me about it. I felt like I hurt her. Oh well, that's life!

Tairua: it was dark when we got there, and I figured it be best if we crashed outside of the town center, and ended up parking in another No Camping area right next to the water.

I bet you know what I'm about to say about this spot too, aye? So i won't. We climbed up the hill in the background which gave us a 360 degree view over the bay and sister town. You have to go there. Legend has it, that once you climb up, you'll return in 7 years. Someone starting the countdown? Once we had made our way back down, the Beast was awoken and began taking us to Hahei, and Cathedral Cove.

On arrival, we still had plenty of sun light, so we decided to check out the cove and see what all the hubbub was about. Once we got down there, yeah, we understood. Just look at the photos, my vocab is too crap to even begin describing what it looks like. On our way out of it, we saw a pod of orcas swimming right by the shore line, mag-bloody-nificent! I think that's probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen, it was just so captivating. They were bloody far away, but you could still make them out under water and their distinctive fin, yeah man...amazing. When we got back to the car and watched the sunset, we bought some beer for the night at the local dairy and set up base in the Parking Lot for Cathedral Cover where two other vans had setup base. I saw potential in this: Potluck dinner. One of the vans pulled out before I could talk to him about it, so I approached the other van and presented my idea and they were keen. Score! I made a tuna/salmon stir fry which was pretty spicy (surprise) along with some flavored rice. The German couple brought some spicy tomato sauce and pasta. Turned out that they were vegetarian. Only in the Oceanic though, strange. Apparently they don't like the meat here, meh.

The 3rd van pulled in and invited him in, also turned out to be a German. They're frikkin' everywhere in this country! So there were 4 Germans, one Dutch, and me crammed into our van, drinking beer, sharing stories, debating what it means to be Kiwi, sharing my disturbing humor. Yeah man, it was a good time :D In the morning, we headed out to the Hotwater beach, and planned to make a bad ass pool. Yeah, F-that! Low tide my ass! The waves kept on killing our walls, no matter what we did! Well, we had a whole EU effort going on, we recruited two other people, tried to build something bigger and stronger, but nej...mother nature kicked us in the head and denied us a nice pool. Ok, I lie, our first attempt was good, but didn't last long. I got to enjoy 30-40 seconds of it...gay.

One more night, destination: Piha. Windy, real windy roads...damn, it was crazy driving the van through those roads, but good fun! We arrived a bit past sunset, but we could see a sweet silhouette of Lion Rock, which was just magical. And it was windy, real windy on the beach. That night I made some hamburgers for the boys and it was just phenomenal - yummy to my large tummy! Upon waking up, we were, yet again, graced with NZ's amazing landscape right out of our rear door...I'm speechless man. I woke up before everyone else to go to the WC, but I figured take some photos at the same time. The sun hadn't fully risen just yet, so I just had to exploit the opportunity, and it was well worth it. Wrote some stuff in the sand, said Hi to a dog, and got to see Piha in all it's glory.

When we were all awake, we cleaned up the van a bit and found some Mid-Winter Christmas crackers that we played with before continuing with the day. We tried popping one, which sucked, no crack, so next we tried 3 - not big change. We then had to try the remaining 6 - it was better, but not that fun...random. After all the shenanigans climbed up Lion Rock that is one of it's main attractions, and we took some photos from the top...yeah, you can see for yourself on that part. While we were on the top, we were just looking over the town Piha and just dreamed of living there or owning a batch (Kiwi for weekend home) of some sort there. I'm going to try to take us there Ruffus!

Once our little adventure was over, we had to drop off the Beast back to it's righteous owner, which was a messy business. Yuck.

This road trip was really amazing, to say the least. Memories that I'm going to look back to when times are dark and bleak. I'm truly going to miss the good times we had together on that trip...man. I don't know what else write except for when we split up in Auckland it was quite a drag, but I knew that I was going to see them later on back down here in Wellington not to shortly. TSD still owes me 28 bucks...or bugs as MSGF would spell.

That concludes F.A.R.T '08 <- Link to web album.

Part 2: My trip up to Paihia and how I hitchhiked back to Wellington in only two rides!

Past week

Well guys, it's been a pretty hectic weekend. Been to Harri Krishna dinners and yoga classes (excellent food), been working on a construction site (got to use a jack hammer; aka: penis enlarger), and just having good fun with my friends.

So where to begin? Well the Harri Krishna was the first to happen, so we can start off with that. Funny as man, you can't pay them, they can only accept donations, so before I could even get in, I had to make a minimum donation of 4 bucks. I only had a 5, so when the asked if I wanted change, they asked in that tone of voice of "Are you one of those cheap people?". So, I tipped them of 1 buck. I was then escorted into a room where people were sitting down either on the floor or on sofas in the back. Lights were dim, and on the "stage" there was a girl playing the drums, a guy on bass, and then another girl singing and playing a horizontal type piano which you have to pump air into with your free hands. And to say the girl was singing is a bit off putting, she was more chanting the mantra with a beat. This is the mantra:

Hare Krishna

Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare Rama

Hare Rama

Rama Rama

Hare Hare

So as you can tell, it's pretty hypnotic and monotonous, and this went on for a good 20 minutes. Then a speaker came up and tried to give an inspirational speak about what it means to be human. She was really nervous and that made her not sound very convincing or brought out any good points in what she was trying to say. When she was done, the started to repeat the mantra, but to a faster beat which people started dancing too. It was pretty awesome to watch. I was on the side lines watching everyone, and it looked like a disco in every sense. On the borders there were people bobbing their heads to the beat (which was good) and the people in the middle grooving to the music with their whole bodies. Except this was a disco for hippies - awesome! When the festivities were over and done with, it was dinner time. And wow guys, it was delicious! It was strictly vegan food, but damn!!! YUMMMY!!!! It was a bagel with some sort of tofu thing in the middle and salad. We also had desert which was like a custard, but also, vegan, and super duper yum! We tried having a discussion at our table, but it wasn't really going to well. It was about what the believes were, and they guy asking didn't really understand how to present the question and he also didn't really understand the answer he got back. It was all lost in translation. Good times.

Next day I went to my first day at work on the construction site, which was fun. Had to wear a helmet, high-viz vest and proper boots. We first started off doing some sweeping, and then we had to go and so some digging. And after lunch, that's when the fun began :D I was given a small jack hammer, and was told to demolish a huge chunk of concrete that had been set wrong. It was pretty time consuming. But then I got the big bad ass jack hammer!!! Man it was pretty intense using it, but pretty awesome at the same time. Once I was done breaking up the chunk, my boss took me to another location for where I had to use it, and well, bugger it! I had to hold it up and try to break concrete which was at my head height!!! That was tough, very very tough!

It ended there and then I went back home, took a shower, and got ready do some yoga :D Yoga is not for the weak mind you, it was pretty intense. Oh damn, I almost forgot, I played some paintball on Sunday, same day as the dinner, which was pretty intense too. So, let's add it all up, pball + jackhamer + yoga = good sleep :D

Ok, my writing has gone a bit downhill on this one I know, but that's cause I'm a bit stressed right now on time, so I have to go! Sorry guys! Going on my road trip tomorrow! Woohoo!!!

Picasa isn't working right now, so no new photos, sorry guys!