This morning I took a bath in the absolutely frrezing waters of Lake Tekapo. I think my heart stopped beating for a few seconds.

Then I went on a hike up to the observatory where I was supposed to check out stars the night before. The hike was incredible. Some of the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen. At the top I met a guy from Phoenix working at the observatory cafe. I noticed he was wearing a Phillips Exeter hat. I asked if he had gone to school there, and then proceeded to tell him why even though I got accepted to the school I chose not to attend ( something having to do with the student tour guide taking me to the campus bridge and informing me that the bridge is where most Exeter students went to kill themselves.). I chose Larenceville after that because it had no bridges.

The walk down from the observatory was unexplainable. Even though there was a designated path it felt like Sabrina and I were walking through fields completely alone. Exploring the earth as if we were the only people alive. Hills fell over each other all greener than the next. The water of Lake Tekapo a neon blue, that if you havent seen it with your own eyes you would never believe it existed. Spaces so open an untouched by man that I kept repeating, 'this is how the earth was before we ruined it.' Absolute perfection.

At around 9pm I left for my second attempt at star gazing. This one was a success and I found that where I had turned around the night before was literally steps from the office. I took the van ride up the mountain and arrived at the observatory in complete dark. The sky was full with more stars than I had ever seen before. I spent most of the night nerding it up with the head astronomer asking questions I'm sure my 8 year old nephew knows the answers to but which completely melt my brain out of my ears. Take for instance, did you know that the closest planet to us at this time of year is Jupiter? And if you took a flight in a commercial airliner to Jupiter it would take you 19 years? Did you also know there are more stars in the galaxy than grains of sand on the earth? Or that when we look at stars in the sky we are looking at them in the past because they are so far away from earth that the light take sometimes 10's of millions of years to get to earth? Some stars we see in the night sky might, at their actual source in the galaxy, not exist anymore. Isnt that fucking insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I learned alot about the galaxy, stars, and space last night but I think I learned alot more about myself. I a fucking huge dork...and I'm ok with that.

Day 4 Nov 6 2010

Last night was quite a failure. I was supposed to hike 15 mintues down the main highway to the Earth and Sky office where I'd meet up with a bunch of other dorks to go star gazing. My bus was sxheduled to leave at 11:30pm (it stays light here until after 9pm). I stepped outside my van and instantly my foot was frozen. next my leg and then my entire body. It had to be about 139 degrees below zero outside. No joke.

Did I let that stop me? Sort of. I slowly walked down the road in the pitch dark, wondering if this was all worth it. I walked for what seemed an hour and probably was really only 15 minutes and decided I was freezing and lost. I turned around and went back to bed in my camper. I watched the stars outside my window while covered in a down blanket. To infinity and beyond!

Day 2 - Nov 5 2010

Yesterday was gorgeous. Sun so bright it almost hurt to look at it.

Today its rainy and freezing.

But we have our new van! And it works! Brakes and all.

We head off from Christchurch at 11am. Make a bee line for our campsite 150 k away in Geraldine. Car drives great even in the downpour that lasts our entire drive.

We pull up to our campsite around 3pm. It's awesome. Towering hills surround the valley we camp in. A river runs alongside the entire camp ground. Sheep and cows cover the hills
. We pull up right next to the river. We're the only people in the campsite. We have all of New Zealand to ourselves.


Have I mentioned how awesome this is?

Day 1 - Nov 4 2010

Left Christchurch today around 10am and headed for Akaroa.

1pm- stopped for our first meal. Pulled the van right up to the beach, popped some chairs in the sand, and ate lunch with huge smiles on our face. We laughed when we thought about our friends working. We're a bunch of assholes.

2pm- Had our first key loss panic attack. They were in the door.

2:05pm- almost ran over a cyclist. Driving on the left side of the road is going to take some getting used to.

2:10- took our first wrong turn. Had to go backwards down a one way street on the top of a mountain. No guard rails. 500000 feet drop off to sudden death.


4pm- 20k from where we started our trip, we have our first breakdown. Rear left wheel sounds like its grinding steel. We pull over and call road side assistance. We wait an hour, but waiting in a van with a bed and food sure beats waiting in a broken down car. This life aint so bad.

Road side assistance arrives, jacks up the van, pulls the tire off, and then the brake...a metal rod falls to the ground. Im no mechanic but I figure that aint good. Turns out one of the rods that holds the brake pads in alignment had broken off and was flipping around in the wheel as we drove. Sweet.

Needless to say Purple Lava needs to go back to the shop...in Christchurch...the place we just left from.

We load the van on the flat bed and head back into town.

Escape informs us that they will have a new van for us tomorrow morning. Tonight theyll be paying for our hotel, meals, and beers, and will be further discounting the already amazingly discounted price they intially gave us. They are heroes.
We check into a hotel we otherwise couldnt have afforded and head to sleep excited for the trip to begin...again.

Those guys living in their vans down on Venice beach arent homeless, they're geniuses!

Our plan for New Zealand has always been to rent a camper van and travel the two islands for a few months. I figured we'd rent your traditional camper can, complete with bathroom, kitchen, tv, the whole nine. We probably would have done that if the people we were trying to rent said camper from weren't complete assholes. Always having a backup plan, Sabrina and I headed over to Esape campers. And the rest is history.

Escape is awesome. I mean from the second we walked into their Auckland warehouse we knew these were the campers we were going to be living out of for the next 2 months. I should say first off they arent really campers. Theyre vans. Retro fitted to be basic campers. The back seats have been removed and in its place sits a table and two couches that turn into a bed. The back is modified to contain a small burner, sink, and cabinet storage space. The van comes with all the fixins, like comforters, sheets, dishes, kitchen utensils, coolers, chairs, table, nav device, etc. Its pretty much the balls. Best of all, the outside has been totally repainted by some of Aucklands most talented graphitti artists! These vans simply rock.

Not only are the vans awesome, the people who rent the vans are awesome x 10. They were so welcoming. So accommodating and so incredibly helpful, that it makes you want to rent from them.

So after a few days of drinking and sight seeing we were off on our 2 month van tour of New Zealand. The following blog enteries will serve as the trip log. See ya!

Singapore I love you...

But I can't afford you.

You're going to hate India

At least thats what we were told. Stories of pollution, poverty, hardships, and crime were all that filled my head as we touched down in Dehli. Countless folks I had spoken to told stories of streets filled with legless beggers trying to get whatever they could from you. Streets packed with so many people you were forced to swim with the crowd where ever it was going. Neighborhoods filled with so much trash, human shit, and more trash that you feel like you're walking through the local dump. We heard countless times that India is the one place you will love and hate all in the same hour.

Well we got the loving part down...never really experienced the hate.

India is an amazing place. And while it is true that is dirty and your eyes do come across some sights youve never seen before, we found India to be one of the highlights of the trip.

More spiritiual than any place we've traveled, you get a sense here that even though most people live in levels a spitting distance from extreme poverty, they have a better understanding of whats truly important. Faith, kindness and love.

The people here are some of the kindest in the world. The Indian smile is not a myth. It exists and its joyfully plastered on nearly every persons face. For the most part people just want to meet you here. Take a picture with you to share with their friends back home. They want to talk with you. Maybe share some chai. After traveling for as long as we have you get pretty good at instantly assesing someones character. I can pretty much tell if you want to be my friend or if you want to steal my wallet. Indians (for the most part) are the former.

India is crowded, but no more so than Times Square or any part of Mozambique that we traveled through. The difference here is in the crowds there is calm. Makes a huge difference. Egytian crowds are insane. Indian crowds are just crowded.

There is poverty and sickness and disfigured people on nearly every corner, but soon enough it all just blends together. I almost don't even see it anymore. Maybe it's because we've been traveling for so long or maybe it's just because you see what you want to see.

I kept looking for the negative. Kept saying to myself 'I guess were just not traveling to the bad places.' But I've spent nearly two months here, traveled to almost 20 towns and experienced a lot. Stepped in cow and human shit daily. Shooed away countless beggers. Got sick off the food. Exposed countless scams. Sat in bumper to bumper trafffic. Sweat my balls off. And I loved every single minute of it.