Santa Costume Wearing, Knife Making and Glacier Climbing

After my soggy accent to the top of Mt Doom, I stuck around the hostel for a while, playing board games, watching (aka, falling asleep in front of) films, and massaging my aching calf muscles before my bus departed from Turangi at 1.45AM. I got to the bus stop early so that I could look at the stars in the cloudless sky. They were just so beautiful because the level of light pollution was so low, and the air is so clear over here. A five hour bus journey then ensued which took me to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.

When I got there at 6.30AM, there was very little to do, so I resorted to having a McDonald's breakfast and falling asleep in the corner for an hour, after which, I went over to the Houses of Parliament. Oddly enough, there was a troop of people wearing Santa costumes. Confused as to what they were doing at this time, dressed in this way, I went over to ask what was going on. It turns out they were promoting a fun run (where you had to dress as Santa to take part. Much less exciting that I thought - I thought there would be some sort of protest) that was going to occur later in the day, and that the news team from Channel One was going to be there shortly. I was bored, and it was still two hours before anything in Wellington opened up, so I decided to ask if I could join in, and sure enough, there was a spare Santa outfit lying around. I put it on and tried my hardest to make myself look presentable for television after two weeks of living out of a backpack (although the only parts of me that were visible were my eyes and nose anyway). It's a good job smellavision hasn't been invented yet. Just saying.

When the news team arrived, we did a very cheesy Rocky-style running up and down the set of stairs outside parliament building, occasionally throwing a few punches into mid air while trying to hide our laughter with our fake beards. At the end of the clip, we all ran into the distance and for some reason we were told to stop and wiggle our bottoms every so often. And this is the start of my career as an international superstar, but I'm sure that will be a story for another day.

After this I headed over to New Zealand's biggest museum - Te papa (Mauri for 'our place'). It was actually a really good museum, with lots of interactive installments so that children (and child-like people like me) don't get bored, and they did a good job of explaining Mauri culture and the science behind the earthquake in Christchurch. Shortly after this I went to catch a ferry over to the South Island. Strangely enough, I ran into a man called Kevin. I met Kevin the day before on the shuttle bus to the start of the Alpine crossing, so we spent most of the ferry journey contemplating travel plans for the south, and exchanging stories of travels so far. We decided that we'd part ways when we the boat landed in Picton, but exchanged details because it looked like we'd have pretty similar plans after a few days. A nearby girl called Julia overheard our conversation and decided to come and talk to us, she said she was going to try and hitch hike around for a while but she was nervous because she'd never done it before. Since we were heading the same way, I said I'd go with her - and so, I had a new travel companion, Julia from Wellington.

Julia and I with a hippy lady that gave us a lift

Even though we didn't start until 5pm, it was still surprisingly easy to get a lift! We got picked up three times and were in Nelson that night. There wasn't a lot there. I think it's just a place to stop off on the way to the west coast or to the Abel-Tasman reserve (which I was gutted that I didn't have time to visit). Julia had a friend in Nelson, who was supposed to hook us both up with free accommodation for the night, but the parents are super strict Christians and were opposed to a boy sleeping in the house, so Julia and I parted ways, after a shot but sweet four hours of companionship.

I reluctantly stayed in a hostel that night after the offer of a free place to stay was cruelly snatched from right in front of my face, but its a good job I did, because one of the guys I got chatting to said that he'd hired a car and was heading over to the west coast, so kindly offered to take me to Westport - the top of the west coast of New Zealand's South Island. On all of the maps, Westport looks like a major city with heaps of things to see in do. In reality there is one road with shops on it, and a beach which takes 45 minutes to get to where the water is too cold to swim.

It didn't take long to get bored of Westport, and so the next day, I hitched a lift out of there, and began my journey down the coast. I'd heard that the drive between Westport and Greymouth was meant to be amazing, with beautiful scenery and winding roads. This was enhanced by the guy who picked me up. A retired English man who has fallen in love with New Zealand and just can't stop coming back, called John. I had a great time in John's car - mainly because he seemed fascinated by everything I said. We talked about science, and he was keen to ask me lots of questions about the chemistry and geology of the world. I did my best to answer his questions accurately, but remembering those geology lessons from five years ago was a bit of a struggle, so I must admit that some of my answers were slightly on the fictional side. I think I got away with it though. Since he was a tourist as well, we stopped off at the pancake rocks (rocks that look like stacks of thick pancakes) and he even bought me a pot of tea and some chips. When we got to my next destination of Barrytown, I discovered that the hostel there had been closed down, so John even offered to take me to the nearest hostel, which involved going back on ourselves. It was a shame to part company with John, since he was such a kind, generous and interesting man, but I suppose that is the way of a hitch hiker!

That night I stayed in the Punakaiki Beach hostel. Obviously I'm not going to bore you all with the details of every hostel I stay in, but this one was just great. It sits right on a a quiet beach where you can just walk up and down collecting jade stone and with a backdrop of the southern Alpine mountain range. That evening, I sat and watched the sun set over the sea, and it was the most vibrantly red sunset I'd ever seen. Everything about this place was beautiful, and I kind of didn't want to leave, but the next day I set off, back to Barrytown, where I spent the day making a knife. From scratch. And by coincidence, Kevin was there too!

We started with a piece of steel, a plank of wood, some brass and a length of metal. Steven, the man who took the course, showed us some of the finished products, and we all thought the same thing: how on earth are we going to turn these things into one of those?! It was a long day of hammering, grinding, sanding and and sawing, but sure enough, at the end of the day, we all ended up with beautiful knives! We finished the day with a glass of Barrypagne (boxed wine from Barry passed through a soda stream), and Kevin and I continued down the west coast towards the Franz-Joseph glacier. The west coast is very sparsely populated, so there was very little traffic. We managed to get 20km away from the glacier that night, but ended up having to sleep in Kevin's tent on the side of the road because the sun had set and we were both exhausted from walking 10km from our last drop off point. Luckily, when we woke up the next morning at about 6.30, I managed to hitch us a lift in the first car that passed us! We went to drop off our bags in a hostel, and spent the rest of the day hiking up the Franz-Joseph glacier, apparently the world's steepest and fastest flowing commercially guided glacier.

It was a sunny day for the most part, which really made the blue ice on the glacier stand out. I'm aware that I overuse these words a lot in these blogs, but it looked amazing and beautiful. The pictures don't really capture it, but they never do... Sadly, the ice is melting at such a fast rate that they think that pretty soon the glacier won't be there, so if you want to have a look for yourself, then I'd do it in the next few years! After the eight hour glacier walk, Kevin and I went to the local hot pools (included in the price of the glacier walk - result!) and stayed long enough to sooth our aching muscles and wrinkle our skin.

The next morning, we got up early to try and hitch a ride to the infamous adventure capital of New Zealand - Queenstown. We stood on the side of the road for about half an hour, but only two or three cars even drove past... It was a hopeless cause, so we just got on the Intercity bus and paid our way there. Finally I was here. This is the place I'd been most looking forward to for my entire trip. Adventure ensued.

The other Alps

So at the end of my last entry, I'd just said a teary goodbye to the Norwegians and endured eight hours of bus travel to get to the, frankly underwhelming, Turangi. My initial plan was to do the Tongariro Alpine crossing (over part of New Zealand's Alpine mountain range - copycats) the day after I arrived (reputably the best one day hike in New Zealand), but everyone was telling me not to go because the weather forecast was bad and that I wouldn't see anything. I wasn't doing the hike for the views, I was doing it because it's a twenty kilometre hike over a mountain with the option of climbing Mt Ngauruhoe (AKA Mt Doom from the Lord of the Rings trilogy). Because of everyone's advice, I decided to do the hike the following day (Tuesday).

As it turned out, the weather on Monday great, but because of the bad weather forecast, I hadn't set an alarm and had missed all the shuttle buses. It wasn't all bad though, as I spent the day catching up with this blog, lazing in the sun, and sorting out my onward travel (though it was nice, I was slightly irked by the fact I wasn't standing on top of the mountain).

Tuesday arrived and I got up at the horrific hour of 5am to catch the 6am shuttle bus and start the walk at seven. The weather looked like it was going to be alright - there was some blue sky with patches of clouds. As it turned out, the weather was not alright, and there were eve thunderstorms later on in the day. This annoyed me, because I could have been away from this place and could have spent a bit longer in Wellington.

So as I started the walk, it slowly began raining heavier and heavier. I actually didn't mind the rain though. Being British, I think I'm used to it, and still had a bloody brilliant time. At the front of the pack with me were two other men (one in a red jacket, and one in a beige jacket), who shall hereafter be referred to as red man and beige man. We plodded along silently, using each other to set our pace and for moral support. I sensed that beige man was quite competitive, and tried to hurry away, but red man and I wouldn't let him and kept up with him. Beige man seemed annoyed, maybe due to a combination of the weather being bad and the fat that red man and I could keep up with him. The three of us, who all set off at 7am, got to the end of the crossing by 11.10am - four hours and ten minutes. I felt slightly proud of myself, because everyone says it's supposed to take about eight hours!

About a third of the way through the climb, you could go and climb to the summit of Mt Ngauruhoe (one of the two mountains used as Mt Doom). I was told before I set off not to climb it if I could see clouds at the top. I did it anyway. It was too much of a cool opportunity to pass up. It was a tough climb, especially in the wet, and I came down pretty much as soon as I'd got to the top, but now I can say that I've been to the highest point in Middle Earth. I had a nice day climbing, but because of the weather (low lying clouds, rain, etc) the views were not great. This is how the emerald lakes looked when I got there...

 And this is how they could have looked on a nice day...

So maybe I'll be back one day, when I have more time to waste waiting for the weather. I know I definitely want to come back to this amazing country - I just don't know when. I did, however, learn some important lessons that day:

1. When I next decide to walk through clouds and heavy rain, use waterproof shoes
2. When I next decide to walk through clouds and heavy rain, bring dry clothes for when I finish
3. Waterproof jackets are less waterproof than described

Drenched at the end

Harbourfront, Halloween and Hiking

It has come to the end of the semester. Everyone has finished lectures, and there is a sense of relief in the atmosphere as people get their last assignments handed in. To celebrate, a posh three course meal was organised for the residents of Kooloobong at the harbourfront restaurant last Friday. It was a great chance for everyone to get dressed up and look nice for a change! There was no choice in what meal you had, it was kind of "pot luck"  because the waitresses just put random dishes in front of random people, and if you didn't like it you just had to find someone willing to swap with you. I feel I was lucky with my meals, and had calamari to start, chicken, ham, cheese, mashed potato for my main, and cheesecake for dessert (and also Tora's profiteroles because she wasn't hungry anymore - result!). After the meal, we took the party back to Kooloobong, and partied on until the early hours of Saturday morning.

So... It's that time of year again, where everyone paints their faces and looks like an idiot, but no one minds. There were birds, pumpkins, clowns, catholic school girls and Miss Norway. Halloween is barely ever celebrated in Australia, so we decided to show them how its done (even though it is my least favourite holiday of the year - mainly because I hate wearing face paint)

The boys hosted the party in their new house, and fun was had by all. The night started early (about 3pm for me) and everyone was sat outside to avoid overheating as there was a nice breeze, but this was soon ruined by a downpour of torrential rain and a quick lightning show. The party migrated inside, but we did let it ruin our spirits (or the goon punch). The table was used for beer pong, and in the lounge room, drinking games were being played - there were some decent games for the one of the first times since I got here! It's nice to not play ring of fire for once!

After a quick trip home to Skype my two favourite Stephs, I went back to rejoin the party, but I was so tired from a week of assignments and from the night before that it wasn't long until I passed out on the sofa! I decided it was probably a good idea for me to go home, so I did, but was apparently found a few hours later asleep on Noor's couch - no idea why, and no recollection of this haha

The next night, Halloween was celebrated with some of my course mates at the Outback Steakhouse. It was expensive, but bloody good. I donned my pumpkin outfit again (no face paint this time) and had a great meal with a nice, cold lager. After the meal, we went back to Thom's place (who has a sward, a bow and arrow, a library, and many many more cool things) and played card games into the night, and it was great to not be drunk (for once)!

The next day I made an effort to get up early and actually managed to make it to the top of Mt Keira! It was the first time I'd managed to get up there and the view was amazing. It just seemed magical as blue butterflies danced around my head. On the railings there were padlocks, where people had engraved their names and the names of their loved one. This must be something that happens all over the world, because I saw it in Ljubljana when I went, and there are definitely other places in Europe where this is done. I suppose it represents the never ending love that the two people have for each other, and its all very sweet.

Anyway, once I'd had enough of taking in the view, I was tempted to try and hitch a lift down with someone who'd driven up, but decided that I should just walk. It's a lot harder on the way down than it is on the way up - mainly because I can see how far I'm going to fall if I slip, and I'm not great with heights! I made it down in half the time it took for me to get up, with only a few minor scrapes.

That's all for now! Don't expect too many posts in the next few weeks... Exams will soon be upon us so all my time will be taken up with revision, but I'll try and blog before NZ since I don't think I'll be able to do one over there! x

A little blue pill and a mini mountain adventure

So most of this week, for me, has revolved around a little known treatment for male impotence called Viagra. Don't worry, I haven't had to take it, I've just had to write about it. I've not blogged a lot this week because I've spent all my time trying to find information about Viagra and haven't been able to do anything else! I'm not doing this for fun, in case you were wondering... I had to write my first literature review on any one of a list of given drugs for my medicinal chemistry module, and since it was the only one I'd heard of, I chose Viagra!

It wasn't all doom and gloom though this week, in fact I quite enjoyed writing it at times, so I'll share some facts about it with you...

-It was originally developed as a vasodilator to cure hypertension and angina, but during clinical trials, the research team noticed that many of the men who took the pill got erections
-This was due to the fact that it inhibited an enzyme in the smooth muscle of the penis, instead of the smooth muscle in arterial walls that it was supposed to act on
-The drug was developed by Pfizer, and was first prescribed in 1998
-It was initially prescribed at a rate of 10,000 pills per day in the USA
-Annual sales of the drug peaked in 2008 when worldwide sales gave a profit of about £1,100 million, which is pretty good, when Pfizer is a company that spends billions on advertising every year

And now you know a little bit about Viagra. Apart from looking at online journals, I went out a couple of times, saw a turtle/tortoise in the middle of Kooloobong, discovered the eels in the ponds on campus, went to the gym a few times, and played tennis with Charlie. Nothing interesting at all - so today I decided to climb a mountain.

Mount Keira, which is just behind Kooloobong, stands at about 460m above sea level (according to Wikipedia), and the route to the top is meant to be fairly logical and simple, but of course, because it's me, I got lost!

While I was climbing, the path I was on suddenly stopped and I was presented with a steep, rocky hill. I knew I'd gone the wrong way, but decided to climb up it anyway. It properly tired me out, so I sat down when I got to the top, but then I realised that I couldn't have gone any further if I wanted to because of the massive (and I'm talking huge) rocks that were now in my way! So after about half an hour of trying to see if there was a way to get around these rocks I decided that I should probably go back and try to find the path I was supposed to be on, but getting down was a lot harder than getting up, and I was genuinely terrified that I would slip and break my ankle or something. After slipping, scrambling and sliding my way down the hill I found a path, it wasn't the one I came up on, but it was better than nothing! I followed it for a while until I came to a road, and decided to try again another day and managed to find my way back.

Even if I was scared for my life (or at least me ankle) at some points and it was a massive fail (something that is starting to happen more and more!), I still had a crackin' time and probably made it to about 400m so didn't do too badly! It was just nice to be able to be on the mountain by myself surrounded by nature! I was hoping to bump into one of the lyrebirds or wallabies that apparently live up there, but I think the closest I came to either of them was seeing a large pile of animal poo on the path. I did think I could hear a lyrebird at one point, but it was probably something else that just made a cool noise...

Next time I try to climb it, I'll get to the top, the view is meant to be amazing, but since I didn't quite get there today, here are a few snaps of what I did manage to see :)

The steep, rocky hill I was on about