World ExploraSean: I Left All My Doubts on the Airplane

After procuring our tickets for the ferry to the south island, we made our move towards hangover salvation... McDonald's! With some disgustingly greasy, unhealthy food and coffee fueling my forsaken body, I was ready to conquer whatever the ocean had planned for me. The ferry we were on was more massive than my biceps, including a garage for vehicles that were being transported, a theater room, bar, multiple lounge areas with free WiFi, and tons of outer decks to take photos.

I eventually found myself alone and in need to use the restroom, as the combination of alcohol, McDonald's, and coffee was taking it's toll. I searched and searched, but alas, I could not find a bathroom... but then I saw a sign reading, "poop deck". Relieved, I stepped out into what I thought was going to be a toilet area, but was just an open deck. However, there comes a time in a man's life when he just can't hold it in any longer, so did I follow the most direct definition of the name poop deck? You bet your ass my ass did. To the members of the Picton Ferry cleaning crew, I have just one thing to say to you, "You're welcome".

Skyline view of Wellington

A little sunshine

A hilly little island

These rocks reminded me how hard my abs are

So amazing

We were lucky to have great weather, which allowed us to hang out on the decks and get great views of all the little islands and birds flying around. I took 250 photos during the 4 hour ride because it was so spectacular, I could have stayed onboard for another 4 hours easy. After getting off the boat at noon we hopped on our new bus and started making our way south, but first we hit up a winery for some free drinks! Nothing like a boat ride and some wine to cure a hangover.

Free delicious wine, I love the little things in life

Apparently this area is being used in the new Hobbit movies

After leaving the winery we started to make our way to Abel Tasman National Park, but we had to make a stop for skydiving along the way, since one of our new members, British Dan, had a jump to make. While he was making his jump, we made our way to UFlyExtreme, where you can operate your very own stunt plane. I was initially put off by the price ($350 or $450 with video), but after watching the promotional video, money was no longer a factor, as German Dan was for sure doing it and I wasn't letting that piece of shit have all the glory and boast about how amazing it was to everyone, not that I have an ego or am competitive by any means. Since I have a GoPro I also got the bonus option of having a wing cam to capture more video from the side. So with nothing in my body but some wine and indigestible, anti-decaying fast food, I felt like i was ready to fly a plane upside down.

As I got into the plane I could hear the Top Gun theme song playing in my head and was so pumped up about life. The pilot in charge handles the take off, shows you how to do a few things and then basically just tells you what to do from there. You start off simple, doing some basic rolls, but then you work your way into flips, double rolls, four point turns, figure eights, and flying upside down. Twas amazing and it was really cool that he put his hands up in the video to prove that he wasn't doing any of the flying. My only complaint was that there was no machine gun or missiles on the side of this plane so I could blow shit up. That stunt plane was so solid!

You have no idea how excited I was

Look how ridiculously happy I am, I'm like Maverick at the end of Top Gun...or Tom Cruise when he jumped on Oprah's couch

That night we drove to our accomodation, Old Ronald McDonald Farm. James and I started to do our laundry only to find that the washing machine didn't work, so it ran for 2 hours without draining leaving all of our clothes soaking wet. We hand wrung them out and then started drying them, but the drier was super loud and we were trying to watch a movie in the adjoining room. Thus we set it to dry overnight and planned to finish drying it in the morning. Little did we know the power was being cut that morning, so our clothes couldn't be dried and we were without power until 7 pm. They also didn't tell us about the power outage, Tomas had to walk all the way down the road to the reception building 3 blocks away in the rain.

My clothes smelled unbearably terrible, it seriously smelled like I washed them in a urinal. Daniel told me my hoody smelled like a dead animal. Later that day we walked down to the reception area to inquire about a partial refund since it was a planned outage and the guy working said he didn't see a problem with that and his boss would work it out with us in the morning. The next morning we went down to the reception area before leaving, but no one was anywhere to be found. The hours that they staff this place are 8-10am and 3-5pm, not exactly rough hours, so we kind of figured they were avoiding us. James took the lead on calling them for a refund, but they said no and after some haggling offered $2 per person. James politely said didn't seem fair and the guy then proceeded to hang up on him. Worst customer service ever. We ended up working with Stray and they gave everyone a free night's accomodation at a future hostel to make up for the situation. Good on them, one of the reasons I would recommend Stray to my fellow travelers :)

Random Beach - I wouldn't mind having one of those houses...

After leaving Abel Tasman, everyone was a little bitter, but things quickly warmed up as we randomly stopped for lunch at a little cafe that also doubled as a petting zoo. They were super nice and let us check out all the animals for free, even though there is supposed to be a $5 cover. I was pretty pumped, partially because i'm always excited about everything and partially because I'd never seen a peacock or ostrich.

This picture is solely in there because my biceps look amazing, hells ya i'm that vain

Look at this beautiful bastard flaunting it. Peacock(y) much

Ostrich, "I'm going to kill you"

Me, "Let's just be friends, I'm kind of awesome brah"

We then checked out a seal colony, but it was kind of hard to make them out because we were up really high on a cliff. After that we had our group photos at a cave where we could take silhouette photos. There may have been one or two inappropriate photos that were taken because the girls were really immature. Our last activity before checking into the hostel was to view some pancake rocks, which weren't anything super amazing on their own, but the way the tide crashed over the rocks on a gloomy/rainy day was pretty awesome.

Loose Seals!

Even in complete darkness I still manage to look Asian

Pancake rocks...Also pancakes rock

That night we stayed at a really cool little cabin/house called the West Coast Cultural Stop. We did a group meal, with English Dan and I helping Gollum make meatballs and the Germans making an amazing apple strudel. Words cannot describe the deliciousness of the strudel, I ate seconds even though I was full.

After 2 weeks in New Zealand, I've spent roughly $1500, so the adventurous activities portion of my blog may slow down a little, but we shall see what I can manage on a tighter budget and a diet of 2 minute noodles over moldy bread. However, fear of spending money is no different than a fear of heights or snakes. And life is not fear, life is to enjoy! I believe it's worth spending money and time on things that will generate memories that you won't forget. I may not drive a Ferrari or be the guy wearing a $6000 suit (Gob, Arrested Development reference, drink!), but in the past year I have jumped off a bridge, biked down a mountain in the pouring rain, seen ancient cities, colored lakes, rainforests, climbed a volcano in a blizzard, rafted off a 25 foot waterfall and flown a plane upside down. These things aren't manufactured or physically tangible and leave only memories, but what is more tangible or can be held closer than memories? Certainly not anything you buy in a store. My next stop was the Franz Josef glacier, would I get my chance to be naked on a glacier? I guess that's a story for another blog

Group Photos