now, i've gone to the top 5 power cities of the world with sydney the last one. sydney's friggin' huge city though i will be hitting a brief aussie road trip to the grampians, probably like 15 hours away from here to check out its granite boulders, so won't be online for a while.
uh...
-bungy jumped twice from 134m high (440 feet) the highest one in NZ ever.
(http://www.ajhackett.com)
-rode shotover jetboat (http://www.shotoverjet.com/
-rode a few street luges (http://www.skyline.co.nz/luge/index.html
wish i could stay here little bit longer so i could sample some more of queenstown's adventurous activities. oh yeah, tt, they even have a rally car racing for you to get on with a professional driver! i didn't have time to check this out, but from what i've heard, it's gonna give you a huge thrill!
right now i'm in christchurch and will fly out to australia tomorrow. hope to go to gold coast and maybe grampians for a session of bouldering. who knows...
anyway, i just checked espn.com and arizona's OUT. dayum... so much for the wildcats' final game as both of 'em are OUT.
just got into queenstown, and boy, it's full of tourists here due to the fact that this town only offers all the extreme activities you can think of: jetboating, bungy jumping, ground luge, snowboarding, etc. and i'm loving this town already. i hope i can book for a 134m bungy jump (that's about 440 feet high) and shotover jetboat ride tomorrow.
anyway, i've gone two days of bouldering at castle hill. i got two words for this place: FRICKIN' SICK! this place is definitely not for beginners as there are many mad problems out there and there aren't many easy holds out there. most of the topout are all slopers. castle hill definitely kicked my ass for sure. this unique limestone is sooo friggin' soft and smooth that it's somewhat hard to slap and stick in. i met this guy from england and his fingers were like triple bigger than my fingers. he said that he's been to castle hill 10 times and it still kicks his ass. one thing i love about this place is most landings are so grassy and mushy! it's really amazing to see these rocks standing in these greens knobbys. i will definitely come back when i'm madly STRONG with slopers!
anyway, today we went to see some glaciers on the way to queenstown from castle hill. it was cool to see the end of a glacier upclose as my dad and i saw a few ice cave and crevasses.
well, gotta hit the sack early so i can get up early for a morning jump!
from the first moment i arrived in wellington, it struck me that this city definitely resembles san francisco. victorian houses, hills, narrow streets, and rich european style influences around, as well as fresh, funky, alternative district too. i love driving around wellington as it brought good memories of reckless driving in SF during my high school times. i think i'm ready to drive in the heavy congested streets of hong kong. i really enjoy driving from the right side seat perspective.
anyway, north island definitely is a backpacker's land. lots of backpackers' hostels and camping sites to be found anywhere. however; most things around here are expensive except for seafood and meat which are relatively cheaper yet excellent quality.
we drove through roturoa and taupo. pretty cool towns.
tomorrow off to take the ferry to south island!
fyi, new zealand's time is 18 hours ahead of eastern standard time (nyc).
just arrived in auckland from LAX at 7 am in the AM.
wonderful sleep in first class bed courtesy of my dad's retirement benefits
think of auckland as san diego.
full of boats everywhere.
i drive left lane instead of right lane. my dad got into a minor accident just hitting the curb as he hasn't driven the british driving road system in years. for me it only took me a few seconds to get used to it. i think i'll be driving the car for the most of the time. i'm scared to see dad drive here. he has had a few close calls around the roads.
our rental car's 4 tires got slashed by an idiotic bum, so we had to wait and get a new car. at least our new car is better than the original one as it has more power and more spacious than the original one.
hotel room we are staying in: the spencer that holds ALL suites - kitchen, living room, etc... and even its own laundry room loaded with washer and dryer! that's something! great view of the harbour too.
i'm trying to get into british english.
off to wellington soon.
hanging out at a friend's office, cherry sky films, in LA before i fly out to NZ tonight.
check out the limited run movie called _better luck tomorrow_ in san francisco, los angeles, chicago, and new york on april 11st. you can find more info about it at http://www.betterlucktomorrow or http://www.cherryskyfilms.com.
also, check this actual person's diary in iraq:
http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/
it's better to read this blog than getting media sh*t since they're usually biased.
will be going to auckland and take a nice long road trip around to wellington and christchurch. sadly, i won't be able to make to the world's most adventurous town, queenstown, due to shortage of time though there's a new plan for me to go to australia after new zealand and will be hanging out there for a week or so.
off the subject, it seems like bush and saddam are having words of war or is that the other around, war of words? it'd be interesting if bush and saddam are placed in a boxing ring, and both gets the draw decision, who would win the war? i'd have to say saddam just because he would be still alive, and bush would be labeled as a huge failure aka the bushitty sucker. well, since there's nothing i can do about this start of the war, i could just at least support the patriotic USA to finish this in just a brief time, hopefully, by the time i get back home in the states on 2nd week of april.
back to the trip, i hope to write a few blogs during the lord of the rings expedition...
just flew into CA from NY today.
hanging at my parents' place.
while my mom's masseuse is here giving her a nice long massage, i'm trying to make out my rough itinerary for my new zealand trip in my head...
these are the places i hope to go:
auckland
christchurch
castle hill (one of those premier bouldering spots)
queensland (original site of bungee jumping)
with war looming in, i truly feel so lucky to be flying out of america so i won't have to see all the media being visible in any direction. i just hope that i don't see any war shit on the front page of NZ's local papers! i recalled seeing a front page story about columbia's shuttle accident while in south america.
as for new york, many new people welcomed me into the big apple. i truly didn't find any new york tough attitude in them. i wonder if that ol' rudy guiliani had a huge influence on them... anyway, i was kinda too busy showing a visiting friend around big apple over the weekend. i was amazed at myself on how well i knew nyc, though the places that i took were mostly touristy because she asked for them! also i looked around for an apartment to live in with my roommate, and we still haven't found a good one yet. we'll resume once i get back from NZ.
oh yeah, one more thing, muck and hui, glad to have caught you even though if it's just for a brief time.
i'm still here in chicago, and still packing and cleaning my place. i didn't realize how much of work you have to do when you own a pad. when you're a renter, you used to not to worry about cleaning as you'd know that a leasing office would just hire a housemaid to clean the place out since they probably would just take some of my security deposit $$$! i've decided to haul a trailer for my stuff as it was too expensive to hire movers to do the moving for me. i've set my target date to arrive in ny this thursday. i must have packed at least 15 boxes already! anyway, i've gotten myself a renter already for my condo! it's a gal coming from st. louis and will start her lease here on april fool's day. i just hope this time she's serious about moving in on that day instead of myself standing around like an idiot. it seems like i'll have to postpone my trip to NZ to next week sometimes after st. paddy's day because of this postponed move. this weekend is gonna be my last one for chicago and it's a productive house cleaning weekend for me! definitely NOT fun at all. i very much look forward to hit a long flight to NZ soon!
He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace.
-- John Mason Brown, drama critic
finally my parents left for CA yesterday and today i've been packing all day. here are some of the monetary stuff that i've found while packing: a 2-year old check worth of 64 bucks (i don't know if i'd be able to cash it since i know that suz has had her account closed here in chicago), a few hundred dollar bills (wow, it's really nice to find a few hundred dollars being lost somewhere in the stacks of papers in my room), many love cards collected in my college days, and a few bills that sums up a thousand HK dollars (i think that would be around 125 US dollars). it seems like as if i'm leaving a trail of cash in my place. with all this lost $$$ i found, i think this may be good enough for me to get one of those digicams! perhaps i'll get one soon this week! such a blessing for me to leave unnoticed on these cashes around my condo. i'm just glad that no one found 'em when they were in my place!
anyway, when i told my parents about my plans to NZ, they asked me if they don't mind joining me for this trip as they would love to visit NZ to visit their friend there so they'll probably just hang out with me in NZ for a week and i'll be on my own for another week there. i'm not sure exactly when i'll be taking off to NZ, but i'm hoping that i can leave on 2nd week of march. it's likely that i'll be hauling heavy loads of my stuff to nyc this week maybe thursday or friday. no, i still haven't found a new tenant to fill up my condo yet. so keep on spreading the word about my vacant condo for rent!
wow, it sucks to be on 56k modem here, but at least it discourages me from hogging online for so long and get my ass moving for NYC and NZ!