Life is Good

tough mudder

2011-10-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

Alright here we go, it's time to start the training for tough mudder in may 2012. I started this week, today i did an hour of shoulders, triceps, and biceps. what have you done?

Wellington, New Zealand

2009-08-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

I know it's been awhile and I'm home now but I wanted to finish what I started and explain about upcoming adventures that I have been thinking about. Before you hear about anything new, I wanted to tell you a little about my time traveling. The last place I left off was Wellington, New Zealand and probably my favorite stop while traveling. Rachel and I stayed in Wellington for about two months and during this time, we found jobs at a charming little outdoors shop called Gordon's Outdoor Equipment and a flat ten minutes away from the store. I'm so glad we got the chance to stay in Wellington for an extended amount of time because it gave us a chance to see what New Zealand was really like. We made friends with our

flatmates and coworkers, made some money which enabled us to

do more and see more, and we got a break from constantly traveling. Rachel and I were already thinking about the holidays and thought it would be better for us to be in one place rather than traveling around. This was the first time either of us would be away from home during the holidays and wanted to make it as easy as possible. Everything worked out really well once we got to Wellington (not that it wasn't going good already, we were just really lucky). We decided to go and look for jobs since we were planning on staying for an extended amount of time. We looked at mostly retail jobs for the simple reason that we had experience and figured people would be needed for Christmas. We tried about ten different places before Gordon's hired us. We were very excited because they hired us on the spot and asked us to start the next day. Once we found jobs thenext obstacle was to find a better place to live for the summer. Living in the hostel would be fine, but we could save a lot more money if we were able to find a flat. It took us about a week to find a place suitable to live in after trying about a dozen places. We were again very lucky that the University students were going home for the summer and students that were staying behind needed people to rent there rooms. We finally ended up living with some students from New Zealand, Malaysia, Germany, and Belgium, who we became very good friends with. The bestpart about staying in Wellington was by far the people we met. Our coworkers taught us a lot about New Zealand mostly about how to drink and party, things I was already

accustomed to being in a fraternity but also a couple things I didn't know, for example that it was OK to drink while working. Don't get too excited it was mostly done when no one was in the store and only an hour before closing time, but still. They were all very welcoming and friendly and eager to tell stories about some of their travels as well.

I'd like to thank everyone at Gordan's for making my stay in Wellington a great experience. Also I can't stop writing without thanking everyone in my flat too. Dinner time was another one of my favorite times of day simply because everyone sat down together and ate together. Each one of us had a specific day we would cook for the entire flat and we would eat and have conversations about life. The night would be topped off by Em making her chocolate pudding for dessert. I hope to see everyone again in the future but will try to keep in contact with everyone.

Waitimo Caves and Tongariro National Park

2009-01-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

From Rotorua we traveled to Waitimo Caves. I planned on making it a nice little day trip and then head down to Tongariro National Park. Waitimo Caves was the place to go and do a little caving. It's basically rafting in a cave, very cool. I was a little bit sceptical about it because as it was still pretty cold I wasn't sure how I was going to get in the water. Luckily, I would be in a wet suit. The caves were fun we spent about an hour navigating through very tight rocks and even bouncing off some of them. Another plus was while in the caves our guide pointed out glow worms. Their really was no need to point them out because there were millions of them on the cave ceiling. They looked like stars in the sky very beautiful. Our guide later told us that they weren't actually glow worms but glow maggots and the glow came from there poop. I guess it's hard to get tourists to come to the Waitimo Caves to see glowing poop from maggots on the ceiling of a cave. Who would have thought. After we took a hot shower and had some of there free soup to warm up, I started down to the Tongariro National Park. I was extremely excited about this park because it was home to Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings. I was planning on doing the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which was a eight hour hike up Mt Doom to see some of the best views and scenery of New Zealand. Unfortunately, I stayed there for three day and the weather was awful the entire time. I had to leave the Tongariro National Park without doing the crossing, I was very disappointed but needed to continue on with my adventure. Next stop Wellington.

Roto-vegas

2009-01-15T17:39:00.000-08:00

Rotorua often called Roto-vegas is a hot spot for tourism in the north island. I was very interested in one particular activity, Zorbing. I had researched it before coming to New Zealand and thought that I absolutely needed to do it. Zorbing is rolling down a hill in a huge air cushioned ball. I know that it doesn't sound all that appealing to some because of the constant spinning, but if you throw in a bucket of water, it's like a water slide. There were two tracks that you could choose from, one went straight down the hill and another zig zagged down a hill. I elected to do the zig zagged track. I noticed that some people had there names up in a sort of hall of fame for running in the zorb all the way down the track, so I thought I would give that a try. There was only about five people to go down the zig zag track still standing, so I knew it wasn't going to be easy but still thought that I could have a shot. I made it around the first turn and lost my footing. I tried to get back on my feet and found it impossible but thought it was a lot more fun trying. I had a great time zorbing and would recommend it to anyone. After zorbing, I finally made it to Rotorua and found a nice little hostel for a couple nights. Rotorua is a hot bed for thermal activity and one of the reasons I wanted to visit. I had never seen a volcano or any thermal activity before and wanted to make that a priority. I walked around a couple of Rotorua's parks which had many mud pools and hot pools on display, but the best was definitely Te Puia, a constantly erupting geyser. I stopped and took a couple of pictures of it, and stood there for about an hour just taking it all in. I moved on from there to watch a maori meeting house gathering. Maori people are native of New Zealand and they shared some of there dancing and native customs. It was heaps of fun. The one down fall to Rotorua is that because of all the thermal activity the whole town smells like rotten eggs. after being there a couple of days you don't get used to it. But all in all a great town. Up next Waitmo Caves.........

Woofing in Whangamata

2009-01-14T22:13:00.000-08:00

I'm realizing that I don't have as much time to do my blogs due to the lack of Internet access so I am going to start summarizing everything instead.

My time in Whangamata was amazing. I woofed with a great English couple and worked on there 40 foot catamaran. My host family, Rich and Joe sailed to New Zealand about 15 years ago from England with three children. Talk about brave. Whangamata was a nice little summer community that is known for great surf and beaches. Unfortunately, it was still not warm enough yet to enjoy them. I did, however, get to enjoy a great hike to a wonderful 50 ft waterfall and an amazing boat ride around Whangamata harbor and shoreline. Rich brought us out to a nice little island in the shape of a doughnut known if you can believe it as doughnut island. The island was very much like the last scene in the goonies where the ship was hidden. I guess a lot of locals will boat out there for the day, anchor, and spend the day on a very small beach. Their isn't room for many people, but not many people know about it. On the way back from doughnut island is where this trip started to get really interesting. We happened upon a boat having trouble getting into the harbor. The tide was going out and a nice little yacht was grounded. Rich being an accomplished sailor decided we ought to help. He tide a rope to the bow and asked me to hang off the mast of the boat over the water. I thought he was kidding at first. I immediately knew he wasn't kidding and said what the hell, the thought of me holding on to the mast with my body hanging over the freezing water amused me and if by chance I fell into the water, what a funny story I would have. I was able to hang off the mast without falling in the water and Rich pulled the yacht back into the channel. I was a hero, sort of. We hooked up the boat and started home when about half a mile from Rich and Joe's house we found a couple of motorcyclists on the side of the road. One of them must of came around the corner and slid right of the road. One was still on the ground having trouble getting up. We called the police and went to help. Luckily, no one was very badly hurt, although the passenger on the bike had a dislocated finger and probably a knee injury. We did the best we could to help before the ambulance came and took her to the hospital. It was a very exciting day. We spent the rest of that night like every other night in the company of Rich and Joe and their amazing dinners, and stories. I'm glad I got the chance to experience woofing at Rich and Joe's. I think it is amazing that people open their homes to people they don't know and while there strangers become great friends. Off to Rotorua.....

Auckland: The City of Sails

2009-01-14T21:37:00.000-08:00

Flew in to Auckland on a Thursday after leaving from LA and losing a whole day flying over the dateline. Didn't really get any good sleep while on the plane, so needed to find a place to sleep for the night. we wound up staying at a great hostel (Nomads hostel) in downtown Auckland. The first day we walked around the city to get our barrings. Auckland is not all that big only 1.3 million people and had somewhat of a Boston feel to it. There were many other backpackers in the city going who knows where. We did a lot of our errands; bough a phone; a couple phone cards; some food; researched more about buying a car and bank accounts. Nothing really exciting happened during the day just a lot of walking around to take everything in the first night we roomed with two guys from Canada, one who just started traveling and his friend who had already been to Australia and heard that New Zealand was more beautiful and had to check it out. the next day woke up early probably because my body was used to LA time and went out in search of breakfast. we bought some food at a mini mart to save some money and started out to buy a car. there was a car fair down the road for backpackers which had all types of vehicles from vans to sleep in the very weathered cars. Rachel and I found the cheapest car we could find and took it for a test drive. Let me tell you a little about this car, it is a 90 Nissan Bluebird. (which I have never heard of before) It has 265,000 km on it which if my math is right is about 176,000 miles. It is standard and the driver sits on the right side (which made it a lot of fun to test drive and Rachel doesn't drive stick so i would have to drive everywhere). Doesn't have a radio so there will be a lot of conversations between Rachel and I. Finally if you go to fast, the roof will make a huge bang (which has scared us numerous times already). I'm not really sure what we were thinking when we bought it, but it was only 1200 New Zealand dollars ($800 US). In all seriousness the car is a station wagon so if we need to we can sleep in it and it has really good "petrol" mileage. The registration and warrant of fitness had just been done, which means a garage has taken a look at it and is if to drive (no mechanical problems). Did I mention it only cost us $800.
After that was taken care of we made our way up to the sky tower to have lunch. the sky tower is the largest building in the southern hemisphere. We were very interested in going up to the observatory to see out over Auckland and New Zealand. It cost admission to go up so we decided it made more sense to eat lunch up there where admission was free and we got to go to the observatory anyway. I was excited for Rachel because i have had dinner in the CN tower in Toronto, Canada and knew that the floor would move 360 degrees to see the whole city while we ate. It was a great experience and would do it again. The last thing we did before we left Auckland was the - 5 bar. what makes this bar so great is that it is actually - 5 degrees in the bar. They give you jackets and gloves and everything is made out of ice. Glasses are made of ice, tables are made of ice, walls, you get the idea. we stayed there for a couple drinks and then left Auckland behind.

Bay of Islands

2008-11-02T01:43:00.000-07:00

We set off for the bay of Islands, according to many a very beautiful place. The drive was four hours Long and because we left from Auckland rather late we decided to stop halfway. A little city called Whangarei, nothing really exciting happened on the way just me going into oncoming traffic a couple times trying to get used to driving on the other side of the road. We also named our car zed, just because z's in New Zealand are pronounced zed. I remember just hoping we would get there zed scared me a little having just bought him and not knowing if we made the right decision or not. We stayed in a hotel unfortunately which cost us Little more money than we wanted to pay but all the hostels were booked for the night. We decided there that we would sleep in the car if a room cost more than $70 nz. Hope it never has to come to that. On our way from Whangarei to the bay of islands we stopped at a beach and collected the biggest sea shells I have ever seen. When we finally arrived in Paihia (bay of islands) we found a great little hostel called the pickled parrot. The main attraction was a parrot roaming around the hostel. For the rest of the day we wandered around the bay of islands taking in all it's beauty. We hiked on the beach and talked to a couple German backpackers from our hostel and called it a day. The next day we left the bay of islands and continued our journey to the Hokiangi harbour to do a little surfing on the sand dunes. Coming over the mountain and seeing the sand dunes was unbelievable They were simply amazing. We climbed the sand dunes with our boogie boards and raced down, looking at the dunes was kind of intimidating, because they looked very steep. The first time I went down the slope I found exhilarating. I wasn't sure how fast I would be going or for how long. I wound up skidding all the way into the water. So much fun. I proceeded to race up the sand dune to do it again and again. It was quite a work out. When we were done with the sand dunes we started off to our first woofing experience in the Coromandel Peninsula. For those of you who don't know what woofing is, it is working on organic farms.
(Pictures to come, haven't been able to get my pics online)

LA vs. NY

2008-10-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been somewhere you thought you knew a lot about, but it turned out very different then what you expected? Everyone has but most recently for me was my experience in LA. After a long day of traveling with more to come, Rachel and I stopped in LA to visit her friend Richard. Richard and her studied abroad together in Australia and now he is studying for his PhD in psychology at UCLA. I had never been to LA before so this seemed a great opportunity to see the sights. The funny thing about LA is that growing up, I have watched many TV shows, new reports, and movies which have depicted LA and I thought I knew what LA was all about. What I pictured having grown up on the east coast was a city like New York,with a little more of a laid back attitude and a huge beach culture. I was right about some aspects but way off in others. LA is nothing like New York. LA has grown out instead of growing up. You don't see any skyscrapers there. I thought that everything in LA would be easy to get to kind of like NY but it isn't. Because LA has grown out, there is a lot of ground you need to cover to get to your destination. The bus system was easy to use and inexpensive but it took some time to get to the destination. Unlike NY where the subway system gets you where you need to be in no time at all but that's only if you can figure out the complex subway routes. The people in LA were great, there was a laid back attitude which I expected and while walking on Venice Beach and Santa Monica pier a huge beach followwing. One other aspect of LA that I don't agree with is that whoever said LA people are very attractive was wrong. I'm not saying they are ugly, but I was just expecting to see good looking people everywhere I went and I didn't. No more than NY or anywhere else I've seen. A couple things I will never forget about LA; seeing the Hollywood sign for the first time; Hollywood blvd where I got my picture taken next to Mickey Mouse's star; Beverly Hills really is as nice as it's portrayed on TV; watching the North Carolina Hurricanes (Hartford Whalers) beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

The Last Days of Summer

2008-10-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

As the trees start to change colors, the days start to get shorter, and the days and nights start to get cooler, I try to hold onto what's left of summer. Yesterday was a great example of that. After it seems about a week of rain and cooler weather, the sun came out and gave us one more day of summer. I took full advantage of this gift of a day by spending it with my friends who also shared my sentiments. Lately, I have been trying to spend as much time with the people that are closest to me because of my upcoming journey to New Zealand. As I get closer and closer to leaving I try to fit as much as I can into what's left of the summer. Luckily for me when I arrive in New Zealand I will be heading into the beginning of their summer. The greatest thing about trying to squeeze everything in, is that you do everything that comes your way. There's no excuses as to why you can't do something. There's no "I have to work tomorrow" or "I have to go grocery shopping." Everything is put on hold to do what you want to do instead of what you think you need to do. I wish I could live my life like that because it would always be exciting and fun. I have never had a better couple weeks than by trying to see everyone and do everything. Last night I hung out with my friends at a house party. We got pizza and beer and played polish horseshoes, ping pong, and pool. It was a great night and I couldn't have asked for more. By the end of the night (12:00 am) Turbo (Erik Vincellette) and I were on our way home when a foxwoods bus went by us on the highway. We looked at each other and at the same time we said "lets go to the casino." Now on any other day I would have thought about how late it was, or how far it was, or why I shouldn't go because I have to work tomorrow, but all of that didn't matter and we went. We only played for about an hour and a half and lost about twenty-five dollars each (seven dollars spent on krispy kreme doughnuts they're so delicious) But I didn't care how late it was or how much I lost, it was great because of the spontaneous nature of it. Thanks Turbo "Lets make some bad decisions"

Good Bye Yankee Stadium

2008-09-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to Yankee Stadium for the last time. It was very appropriate that my last game at Yankee Stadium was spent with my Dad. The man that taught me everything I know about the Yankees and baseball. Kinda funny that my heroes growing up were more of my fathers hero's, like Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, and Roger Maris. Mickey was my fathers favorite player so naturally he became mine, even though I would never see him play. My Dad would tell me stories of Mickey's monstrous home runs, world series wins, and how he could have been better if he could have stayed healthy. I remember going to the ball park on the day that Mickey died. My Dad and I would do a father son game with my friend Chris and his father. We had started on our way there when the news came over the radio. They had a little ceremony before the game that I am grateful that I didn't miss. There were many other games that we all went to that made the history books. We went to the longest 9 inning game in the history at Yankee stadium. I don't remember the game as much as I remember people getting into fights, throwing beer and someone almost going over the side of the upper deck. Thats what happens when the first seven inning goes for 4 hours and the beer can continue to be sold up to the seventh inning. I remember another game that we went to that we sat out in left field and that during batting practice I could a ball from the other team. Everyone waiting and hoping for a ball to come our way and there I was with only my Yankee hat that I was wearing to catch the ball. I somehow managed to fight my way to the front and catch the ball in my hat. Lately the games have been very different. I started other traditions with my friends to go down to make sure that we saw atleast one game a year. This being after college when I had a little more money to see the games. These were great times simply because of stan's bar, drinking infractions in the parking garage and the Yankees winning most of the time. The one thing I regret is not making it to monument park or take a tour of the stadium, but who knows maybe in the next couple of weeks.