New Zealand: Abel Tasman and Pancake rocks

This past Sunday (May 2nd), we decided to hike Abel Tasman national park. This park is located on the northern tip of the south island of NZ. After buying our water taxi tickets we boarded a boat on a trailer hooked up to a tractor. It wasn't high tide yet so a tractor had to take us through the shallow water into the ocean to start up the boat. They dropped us off on the beach and we had a 6 hour (20k) hike back. I thought that if we went at a fast pace, we could surely make the hike in around 4 hours, boy was I wrong. After 5.5 hours of walking fast, we finally got to the end of our trek. There were almost no bugs on the hike which was very unusual. The only wildlife we saw was a few birds. There are no squirrels, no spiders, no ants, no mosquitoes, none of the things which I am accustomed to seeing in the outdoors.

After spending the night in Westport, (cheapest, best meal we ate all trip, only $9.50 NZD for a pork roast with potatoes, apple sauce, carrots, peas, all smothered in gravy), we drove to Franz Josep, a glacier town along the western coast of the south island. On the drive we stopped to view the pancake rocks. these are rocks which formed in layers which scientists cannot explain.

New Zealand: Christchurch and Kaikoura

Christchurch is a really nice, quiet city with several parks and gardens around town. George and I went for a jog through the botanical gardens which was really refreshing since we hadn't been outdoors in good weather for several days. Back at the hostel we made some Brazilian friends who were anxious to practice their english. Christchurch had a large selection of bars right next to our hostel so we bounced around to a few, had some pints and went to bed. The next morning we left for Kaikoura which is a coastal town with great marine life. We had 80 degree weather when we arrived, and a perfectly clear day. After renting some bikes, we visited the seal colony to see a seal hobbling around the parking lot. The town was quite small, only around 10 restaurants. We found a pub called the Whaler with a Friday night porterhouse steak special and grabbed some dinner. The following morning we signed up for a swim with the dolphins tour. George wanted to do the swim, I just wanted to watch due to the cold water. We saw several hundred dolphins swimming around our boat and George spent around 25 minutes swimming right next to them. Next we made our way back to shore, grabbed some lunch and hit the road for Abel Tasman park. Since we had a late start, we didn't get to the park until nightfall so we will have to start our exploring tomorrow.

New Zealand: Queenstown

We spent 3 days in Queenstown, 3 days of nothing but Rain, rain, rain. Queenstown is the city where bungy jumping was invented and has all kinds of extreme sporting activities...available when it isn't raining. We kept hoping it would stop raining, but it didn't so we left. This rain also prevented us from going to Milford sound and seeing the fjords of NZ. I was able to run into 2 friends from UGA in Queenstown who live there now, Cameron Paige and Alan Smith. It was good to see some friends from back home and hear about their experiences living in Queenstown. Today we left Queenstown and drove to Timaru in hope of sunlight. Timaru is a small port city on the east coast. We arrived to blue skies and a beautiful day. After a brief stop, we decided it would be best to go ahead and drive the next 2 hours to Christchurch. We have just arrived in Christchurch to some perfect weather, warm and sunny with the trees just starting to shed their leaves.

New Zealand - Mt. Cook

We finally arrived in Christchurch NZ. After renting a car, we began the 4.5 hour drive to Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand. Some really beautiful views though, saw 2 large lakes, big enough to have waves and tides and were coloured the most turquoise I have ever seen water. My guess would be that these are freshwater lakes which formed from a melted glacier. Also saw mountains and hills for miles which had no development at all, no homes, no farms no nothing other than nature. We stayed the night at a hostel in mt. cook where we were greeted with 50mph wind gusts and rain coming from all directions. Due to the weather, all restaurants in the town looked closed so we drove 45 min to a neighbouring town to find food for dinner. We plan on driving to Queenstown this morning and will stay there for 2 days.

more pics here
http://akersnewzealandsouthisland.shutterfly.com/pictures/8

Delayed in LAX

After a 2.5 hour delay for my flight from SF to LA, I briskly walked 1.5 miles to get to the international terminal in LA to go though security. Only one scanning machine was in use so it took me 45min to get to the front of the line which left me 30min before my NZ flight departed at 9:30pm. Unlucky for me, my bag was flagged by a securty official and I had the joy of fully unpacking my backpack with security and a tight timeline to make my flight. As expected there was nothing out of the ordinary in my bag so I repacked and ran to my gate which had already begun the boarding process. The check-in agent informed me that I needed a printed copy of my flight leaving NZ before I could board the flight entering the country. I had booked a flight to Sydney earlier in the day on my iPhone and only had an email receipt of my flight, no hard copies. Whitney from NZ air quickly took me to the sky lounge to print my Sydney ticket warning me that I would likely miss my flight but could be booked on the next flight one hour from then. My brother George was scheduled to fly out on the next flight so it was fine with me if I missed my flight. After printing 2 copies of my ticket to SYD, it was 55min until the next flight and George had still not landed on his connecting delta flight and had not checked in. The check in cut off time mandated by security is 45 min before the flight departs. George's flight to LAX finally landed(one hour late) and he ran to the international terminal to check in. Unfortunately, it was 8min past the check in cutoff time so he was not allowed on the flight. The next available flight was not until 1pm the following day and it was only flying to Auckland, not Christchurch. We will have to spend a night in Auckland before flying to Christchurch to Start our travels. 2 days of traveling down the drain, thanks Delta.

San Francisco

Spent the last 2 days in SF, wandering the city hills, checked out the Muir woods, went on a ferry ride and walked along the fisherman's wharf. I was able to meet up with my HS friend Jason Robinson who works for a start up company out here called flickster. We went to a trivia gathering with some of his friends (all Stanford grads), and came in 4th place, so disappointing. We had a good time catching up and I was surprised to actually be able to understand a good bit of the project he is working on through my experience at ICE. In Muir woods I walked through a forest with redwood trees that towered around 350 feet high and took a tour bus to a beautiful view of the California coast line. At 4pm today I start the 25 hour traveling adventure to get to Christchurch New Zealand where it is supposed to be 65 degrees. After spending our first night in Christchurch, my younger brother George and I will be renting a car to drive the entire south island.

1st stop, Vegas

After making an emergency stop in New Mexico due to a medical emergency on my flight, I made it to Sin city. First person I see when I get off the plane, none other than Wayne newton just hanging out chatting with fans in the airport. The Hard Rock cafe was my choice for my 5th trip to Vegas. First night consisted of blackjack, clubs, then more blackjack until 1pm the next day. I was actually winning at the tables until I was overserved by the cocktail waitress, so I lost. Gearing up for night #2 in Vegas, hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight.