One ring to rule them all

Jordan Meron here, reporting from the lower bunk of room 406 at Wellington base hostel. We have arrived at the final pit stop of our northern island adventure, but I will start by bringing us back to where I left off in taupo.


We woke up at 430 in the morning on our second day in taupo in quite a state, and it looked like the day was going to be a bleak one. We boarded a bus with a driver who was seemingly high on paint fumes and started the trek to mount doom. The cracked out driver seemed to have forgotten that the old bus couldn't handle the heating and when she turned it on we were literally gassed out of the bus and all I could hear was her screaming "get out kids get out!". Anyways apparently 5 minutes is the appropriate amount of time to leave a smoking bus to settle, because we then hopped back on for another 3 hours of bus fun.

We were all feeling a bit cocky and a bit too sure that mount doom was actually just a hill that any old lady could climb given the appropriate amount of time. Half way in we realized that it was a seriously dangerous hike and by the time we began to climb the summit only josh, me, wills 1 and 2 and mike were left. At one point mike and I go left behind on a rock slide hanging on for dear life and we seriously thought death was a possibility. You all probably think in exaggerating but I am not. Somehow we all did get up eventually and the view was amazing. Sadly my camera battery is fried but will 1 got some amazing pictures that i am 100 percent tagging myself in and making my cover photo. The way down was the most fun because you could basically surf on the rocks all the way down, but it was so sketchy because everywhere we stepped we would loosen the rocks and send massive boulders down at whoever the person in front of us was. Thankfully we all made it back to the hostel in one piece, but our bodies were pretty mangled and I used almost an entire tube of polysporin on one arm alone.

After we got home from mount doom we hit up the bar and watched the tennis game (spoiler alert: Murray lost). I met the Australian judo champion and fell in love. Rishi also created some group drama by challenging Lizzie to a drink off which I think is going down tonight!

Once again we boarded the bus much worse for wear, this time off to river valley. Josh and mike spent the first 20 minutes of the morning trying to other out a way to not have to go the lodge we are staying at (the last one we stayed at was in the middle of no where and kind of shotty) but it ended up being really amazing. It was in the middle of no where, but it had an awesome river to swim in and a trolly to get you from one side of the other that was as exciting as a roller coster. Lizzie and Rishi went rafting on day 2 while the rest of us chilled, and they said it was amazing. Im wildly jealous but everything is so expensive and you really have to pick your battles.

Last night we got to Wellington and grabbed some beers. We had what may be our last big bus night at the bar, because most of us will be splitting up after Wellington and getting on new buses :(. We already had to say goodbye to will 2 last night. Thankfully the base of our crew is all staying here for 2 more nights so hopefully we can stay together a bit longer


That's it for now! Have to get up and try to locate my tooth brush and contacts which sadly I don't think made it to Wellington with me ...

My life is amazing

Hi strangers

I can't begin to comprehend that it's only been a few days since the last post, it honestly feels like a lifetime ago and so much has happened.

First I would like to apologize to our friend sheonna, who I last mentioned as shauna. She told us yesterday that we had been pronouncing her name wrong haha wups!

Anyways, 4 days ago we hopped on the kiwi experience bus in auckland. Sitting behind us were 3 absolute beauties from the UK: Will, Rishi and Lizzie. We are all bffs now (sorry Erin you've been replaced!). Will and Lizzie are on exchange in Australia and popped out here for an adventure and Rishi is a pharmacist from the uk here to have some fun before real life smacks him in the ass.

So the first day on our tour took us to hot water beach. First we rolled up to cathedral cove, the nicest beach I have ever seen. It was a 30 minute hike but obviously josh and mike made me run the whole way because they had to prove they were the trip alphas and apparently getting to the beach first solidified that. The hostel we stayed in was basically a cottage and me and my new besties had a lovely night drinking on the deck. We had to wait for low tide to roll out at 11pm then we strolled out to hot water beach where you can dig a hole in the sand and basically make a hot tub because of some kind of geothermal phenomenon that I would probably incorrectly explain on here and make a fool of myself. Obviously rishi, will, josh and mike had to prove their alpha status again and declared that they would build the biggest, deepest pool. I will give them some credit here and admit that they succeeded. Anyways on the way home Lizzie and will sprinted ahead and left me and josh without a flashlight, and an hour later we were still wandering in circles trying to get home. An Austrian girl from the bus stumbled into us and told us she knew the way home... She didn't. After the appropriate amount of swearing and panic, we did thankfully get home and the twins are stronger because of it!

The next morning we headed to Waitimo and made a pit stop at the karanhagake walk. Thankfully josh and mike were hungover so we didn't sprint it, and half the walk was through pitch black caves so that also helped although I came out with a few serious toe stubbing injuries. Once we got to Waitimo we hit up the caves via inner tube to check out the glow worms. We got more than we bargained for with an eel encounter, a kind of crazy tour guide and a classical music performance by sheonna in the home stretch of the cave (it was pretty great), and it will probably go down as one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Other than that Waitimo is kind of the equivalent to keswick and you should never go there unless you're willing to bleed out money to see the caves (we have been seriously bleeding it out for a week now).

Once again we hopped on the trustee bus (this time with some new friends ... Shout out to simone, will2, elise) and headed to rotorua. Pretty laid back place... Checked out some boiling mud pits, tossed a frisbee in a giant park, swam in a pool... Josh and mike were faced against the other self proclaimed alphas of the trip and it is unclear who came out on top. I think maybe it was neither. The highlight was definitely the night. We had a big night on the town with the whole crew and it was heaps of fun. Learned some new drinking games to bring back to you guys !

And that brings me to this morning../ we woke up extremely hungover, but everyone was battling so hard to pretend they weren't and it was super rattling. I fell asleep on the bus and drooled a bit... Thankfully once we got into taupo (my favorite place so far) the 45 minute hike to a hot spring beat it out of us. Josh spent basically the whole time there scanning for thieves cause we heard people got their stuff stolen last week. I think he was a bit disappointed that we didn't run into any. We also swam in a river with a seriously dangerous current and mike showed us his spitting water through his teeth trick... Not that impressive but don't tell him I said that. Probably the best day so far.

Tonight we bring some beers to lake taupo which is so big that you can fit Singapore into it, and tomorrow heading out at 530am (Bleh) and going to do a 25k hike up to mount doom (the one from lord of the rings...) so that's pretty sick. Wish me luck because we are sacrificing food for activities in the budget and I'm kind of worried of how it will play out.

Once again that's it for now, I'm heading out for a beer with will2 and the boys. Oh ps, for the 200 of you that didn't see on b ... I got into law school! Love you guys!

Ps the last picture is the view from my hostel right now... I love new Zealand !

to the island of waiheke....

HEY FRIENDS

touching base here from the Base hostel in Auckland. Super zonked so here's hoping this post is coherent...

Yesterday morning (feels like a lifetime ago), we got in to New Zealand. Shockingly we were able to locate Nealon in an extremely timely manner and we hopped on the airport shuttle to our hostel. It was a gloomy morning in Auckland, and it didn't look too promising.

When we got there, we strolled up to our 8 man room and met one guy from Germany (absolute gem), 2 British guys (less gem), and some other guy whose nationality I can't remember who has spent more time watching tv on his computer than interacting... There is also a 75 year old italian staying in our room... I only know that because his polka dot bikini style underware from 1930 are hanging on a clothes line in the room and I saw him sneak out at 5am this morning.

So yesterday after a welcome to Auckland McDonalds lunch (big macs all around), we hit the pier and contemplated what to do with our tired selves. We ended up taking a quick ferry to Devonport and hung out on the little beach for a while, then hiked up Mount Victoria and watched the sunset with the most amazing view of the Island. Some awesome pictures were taken (uploads to come), and we had a pretty spectacular day. That being said though, we also came to the shocking realization that it is pretty impossible to eat out for less than 20$, and also impossible to get beer anywhere close to the price of Canada at a restaurant (if you have any tips let me know). That was pretty rattling but we're adjusting.

Today we woke up, went downstairs to book some tours and ended up meeting a Scottish/French girl named Shauna. She was super down to hang out with us and came with us too Waiheke Island. We hung out on a super sick beach, played in the ocean, tossed the frisbee (ran into a new zealand women's player on the beach), and Nealon and I had a little hike date up to an even more amazing view of the island. I am also proud to say that we cooked our first hostel meal tonight (spirals with tomato sauce... decided to play it safe), and it was a success!

That's all she wrote for now folks. We have to crash and catch a bus at 8am off to the next location (still TBA).

Our trip to tokyo

13.5 hours of the trip now under our belts... We just arrived in Tokyo and are just beginning our 3 hour layover. Sadly enough, the wifi won't connect so by the time I post this I will be in new zealand but hey better late than never.

So how did our trip start off? With lots of promise! We rolled into the maple leaf lounge, courtesy of Mr. Carter Durant, had a nice little snack, got an exciting text from Nealon stating that he had spotted Samuel Jackson in line (never confirmed) and had plenty of time to buy plane snacks and reading material. The trip continued to gain steam when we boarded our majestic air bus and realized that two of us had a row of three all to ourselves. I spent the next 13 and a half hours watching 7 movies (giving a nod to End of watch and trouble with the curve, absolutely disgusted by whoever produced and directed premium rush... Thought you were better than that Joseph).

The highlight of the flight had to be when they served us scolding hot mr. Noodles with chopsticks. Picture to follow... Watching josh spit them out was almost as entertaining as watching Justin timberlake for 2 hours.

Anyways just as we were starting to pat ourselves on the backs for passing the halfway point of our journey, we came to the horrifying realization that our next flight was going to be 4 hours longer than anticipated. This was particularly unsettling because I had already maxed out en route's entertainment value and will now be stuck watching Canadian filmography or animated children's movies for the next 11 hours of my life. That being said, I have 75 melatonin pills in my backpack and I'm not afraid to use as many of them as necessary to help me survive.

Anyways I'm watching some pretty riveting Tokyo television and I can no longer keep tearing my eyes away, so until later my friends !

First post...

Hey gang,

So I'm going away (with two goofs). We're off to bigger and better things in New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia! Most of you will probably never glance at this again, but for those of you who do, be prepared for some witty writing, some delightful travel anecdotes and some pretty cool pictures.

I can't promise that this blog will be frequent or descriptive, but I'll do my best.

Wish me luck! This packing of all essential things for an extended period of time into a backpack is way harder than anticipated.