SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Before heading in to Sydney, Chris and I stopped at Murramarang National Park, just north of Bateman’s Bay. We had heard that kangaroos often frequent one of the park’s beaches, Pebbly Beach, so we wanted to check that out. When we got there, however, we were disappointed: not even one ‘roo!

There were, however, an amazing variety of parrots (and other birds) in the trees that would fly down and actually snatch food from your hand. They’re used to park visitors feeding them, so they’ll swoop down land on your shoulders, arms—even your head. We grabbed some bread and were completely swarmed. It was a lot of fun—until afterward, when I realized my arms were completely covered with scratches from all those talons. Still, it was worth it.

Since we didn’t see any kangaroos, we decided to check out Depot Beach, a little ways down the road. No kangaroos there, either, but it was a nice sandy beach, and the water looked really clear and inviting, so we decided to break out the snorkeling gear and dive in. It was pretty cold (this definitely is NOT the tropics), but the snorkeling around the rocks and kelp beds was great—I saw schools of puffer fish, a filefish, different colored wrasses, some goatfish, and a bunch of other Australian fish I couldn’t recognize. Then, as I was swimming on the surface, a huge shape totally obscured my view of the sand below: It was a giant stingray, probably about two meters wide! Chris and I followed it around for awhile (it was cruising pretty slowly over the bottom), and then it swam off. Then later when I was heading in to shore, I nearly collided with it again! I’d swear that thing was following me around—maybe it was curious or something. Whatever the case, it was really cool to see such a behemoth up close (and a little unnerving, too).

We then drove by Pebbly Beach again, and this time there was a lone Australian Grey Kangaroo just laying in the grass under a tree! He was much bigger than the little wallabies we saw in Tasmania. He got up to see if we had any food, but we didn’t (you’re not supposed to feed them, anyway), so he let us pet him for a minute or two and then hopped over to try his luck with some picnickers. It was great to be able to pet a (more or less) wild kangaroo--it's really amazing how friendly the wildlife is around here.

We then drove the rest of the way to Sydney, and checked in to our hostel, Boomerang Backpackers, which turned out to be kind of a dump (in the middle of a seedy neighborhood, with the sidewalks outside all torn up from construction). Funny, it looked better in the advertisement. :-) So we spent the rest of the evening walking around town and making phone calls, looking for something a little better for the rest of our time in the city. We eventually found a decent place, but we can't move there for another couple of days. Oh well.

BATEMAN’S BAY, AUSTRALIA

It took us most of the day to drive up to the town of Bateman’s Bay, only three hours or so south of Sydney. The only exciting thing along the way was when we stopped to do a short nature walk at the Bemm River, and spotted another platypus in the water! This one was completely uncooperative in posing for pictures, though.

LAKES ENTRANCE, AUSTRALIA

We’re back on the mainland now, and we’ve decided to rent a Toyota Camry for the next month rather than flying from city to city. This of course will mean one heckuva lot of driving, because as you may already know, Australia is about the same size as the US, and we’re covering most of the east coast. Still, even with the ridiculous gas prices over here, it’s cheaper than flying.

Before starting our road trip yesterday, we stopped by the Melbourne Aquarium, which although not as big or well-known as the Sydney one, was still pretty interesting. (Of course I would think that, wouldn’t I?) What impressed me the most was the number of sea creatures from the Southern Ocean they had on display—not surprising, of course, but they really did have a lot of critters that I haven’t seen on exhibit anywhere else—weird elephant fish, old wives, giant cuttlefish, a huge maori wrasse, a blue-ringed octopus, and a number of strange Australian shark species. They also had a seven-meter giant squid “frozen in time,” which apparently means the same thing as "frozen in a block of ice."

We then drove east through the Gippsland region of Victoria to the beach resort town of Lakes Entrance. At one point while we were driving through some scrubland, I noticed something that looked like a spiny football by the side of the road, but I was driving too fast to really get a good look at it. A few miles later I saw another, and another, and then I slowed down enough to see that they were echidnas! (Echidnas are weird creatures that look like a big hedgehog, only they have a long snout like an anteater. They’re one of only two monotremes, or egg-laying mammals, in the world—the other is the platypus.) They were just shuffling around on the shoulder of the road, looking for food or something, but it was really cool to see them in the wild.

This morning Chris and I walked across the footbridge that spans the Cunningham Arme inlet to a nature walk that runs along Ninety Mile Beach. We didn’t see a whole lot, except for a large number of Australian black swans rooting around in the seagrass, some songbirds in the underbrush, and bluebottle jellyfish on the beach, but it was a nice walk anyway.

HOBART, TASMANIA

Today we explored the Tasman Peninsula, much of which is included within Tasman National Park. Like much of the region, it has some striking coastal scenery and beaches, but it’s best known as the location of Port Arthur, an infamous penal station used to house repeat-offender convicts during the 1800s. Most of the buildings of the prison settlement are in ruins now, but enough remains for it to be one of Tasmania’s best-known historical attractions. (It was also the location of a horrific massacre of 35 tourists and staff by a lone gunman in 1996, but no one likes to talk about that.)

We took a 45-minute guided tour of the grounds, which include several prison buildings, an asylum, guard towers, official residences, gardens, and even a church. Also included in the admission price was a boat cruise around the “Isle of the Dead,” where both inmates and prison staff were buried. It was pretty interesting to see how they attempted to “grind rogues honest” in those days, and despite its rather barbaric history, today it's a rather picturesque and peaceful place to wander around.

After leaving Port Arthur, we drove north along the peninsula and stopped at some other points of interest: Tasman’s Arch, The Devil’s Kitchen, The Blowhole, and the Tesselated Pavement, which as you can probably guess are some scenic geological features of the rocky coast.

It was only after clambering around on the jagged rocks at The Blowhole and marveling at the huge waves crashing right next to us that we noticed a sign we had passed that said “DANGER – FREAK WAVES! PERSONS PROCEEDING BEYOND THIS POINT RISK DEATH BY DROWNING!” Apparently there's a history of people being swept out to sea here. Whoops.

Perhaps the most unique sight was the Tesselated Pavement, a rock formation naturally crosshatched to look like rectangular paving stones or tiles—irrefutable evidence of the lost city of Atlantis, I'm sure some folks would argue. Anyway, it was cool.

Back in Hobart, Eric and I found some nightlife at a club called Metz, where drunken Tasmanians kept trying to strike up in-depth conversations with me in the men’s room. They're a friendly lot, these Tassies, but kind of strange....

NP: U2, "Van Diemen's Land"

ORFORD, TASMANIA

Another day, another national park: This morning we drove the short distance from Swansea to Freycinet National Park, located on a peninsula a couple of hours north of Hobart. It’s best known for Wineglass Bay, a perfect crescent-shaped white sand beach that's been voted one of the top ten beaches in the world(!). Getting to it, though, requires an hour-long hike through some fairly demanding rocky terrain. Chris, Eric and I managed it, though, and even had enough energy left over to jump in the freezing-cold water and attempt to body-surf for awhile (until our extremities started to go numb!). It really is a beautiful beach, and its remote location saves it from being spoiled by too many tourists.

On the trail to the beach, we saw several Bennett’s wallabies. The ones here are so used to people feeding them that they’ll hop right up to you and let you pet them, as long as they think you might give them some food. (But apparently they draw the line when you try to see what’s in their pouch, as Eric discovered.)

After visiting the national park, we drove south toward the Tasman Peninsula, where we’ll be visiting tomorrow. We stopped about halfway there at Orford to rent a place for the night, which turned out to be an entire three-bedroom house(!) decked out in groovy orange shag carpet. We walked next door to get some fine takeout pizza, then came back and watched the video of 1492: Conquest of Paradise (a pretty lousy film, considering it's from Ridley Scott, one of my favorite directors).

SWANSEA, TASMANIA

A bit of a bum day for me: After driving north this afternoon to get a head start on visiting Freycinet National Park tomorrow, we stopped outside the seaside town of Swansea to stretch our legs at the beach. Being the graceful one, I promptly slipped on a rock and fell into a tide pool. I got completely soaked, cut my hand, bled all over my shirt, and banged my right elbow, which immediately swelled up into an alarmingly unnatural shape. Not my finest moment, but as it turns out, there wasn’t any permanent damage.

We then found lodging at a holiday park in Swansea, and I attempted to stop the bleeding and dry out my wet shoes while Chris and Eric tried out the hot tub. Unfortunately, when we finally got around to walking into town for dinner, all the restaurants were closed, so we ended up at the Bark Mill Tavern feasting on beer, whiskey, and little bags of cashews. (The barmaid eventually took pity on us and scrounged up a bowl of pumpkin soup and three spoons.) Chris eventually got tired and walked back to our cabin, while Eric and I closed down the bar and stumbled down to the beach, where Eric impressed me by reciting entire works by Tennyson and e e cummings until 2 am.

HOBART, TASMANIA

Since we were in the area, Chris, Eric and I drove down the road to the Gordon Dam, and walked across the top of it. It’s a pretty tall structure—one of those places that people with a fear of heights (Chris, for example), might do well to avoid. Apparently you can pay to abseil off it as well, but that wasn’t going to happen today.

We then drove back through the park and walked on a few short nature trails before heading back to Hobart. On the way, we stopped at New Norfolk, where we took a jetboat ride down the Derwent River. It was pretty fun—jetboats can travel at 80 km/hr, and are really maneuverable—great for doing tight turns, spins and such. I was in the front seat, so I didn’t get too wet, but Chris and Eric got a lot of cold water in the face.

STRATHGORDON, TASMANIA

We’ve decided to take a two-day trip to explore some areas west of the city, so we started this morning by visiting a wildlife park near Mt. Field National Park, about 180 kilometers northwest of Hobart. They had a lot of native animals on display, including kangaroos, wombats, quolls, emus, and of course, Tasmanian devils. (And no, the latter don’t travel in little tornadoes, although they do make ridiculous growly noises that sound a little like the cartoon character.) The park rescues a lot of orphaned critters, so we got to watch one of the keepers bottle-feed some baby wallabies, wombats, and brush-tailed possums. All of which, I have to admit, were exceedingly adorable, even by baby animal standards.

But the coolest thing to me was that in the stream running behind the park was a family of platypuses (platypi?) living totally wild! We watched one of them from the riverbank, swimming and rooting around in the mud. Very cool, but man, what bizarre creatures!

After eating in the garden of an awesome little new-agey restaurant called Celtic Dawn (complete with miniature Stonehenge a la Spinal Tap), we then headed into the national park, where we took the trail to one of Tasmania’s most-photographed attractions, Russell Falls, a series of cascades that drop in steps down vertical rock walls. We followed the track further to another waterfall, Horseshoe Falls, and saw some incredibly huge eucalyptus trees, as well as a couple of Tasmanian pademelons—little wallabies endemic to Tasmania—hopping around in the bush.

Later in the afternoon we did a nature walk through the sub-alpine moorland around Lake Dobson, through ancient pencil pines and strange-looking pandani plants, and stopped for the night in Strathgordon, at a hotel originally built as lodging for workers who built the nearby Gordon Dam in the 1970s. (This project remains rather controversial, as it flooded an entire valley in the national park to create a giant lake.)

At night, Eric and I hung out in the hotel bar, getting drunk and playing darts, while rough-looking hydroelectric workers played Meat Loaf and The Eagles on the jukebox, and kangaroos hopped around on the grass outside. Kind of a surreal experience, really!

HOBART, TASMANIA

Today we did a day trip from Hobart and explored nearby Bruny Island (which is actually two islands, North and South Bruny, connected by a narrow isthmus called The Neck).

Highlights of the day:

• Finding a baby skate that had washed ashore but was still flopping about, and "rescuing" it by throwing it back in the surf (where I'm sure it was immediately washed back ashore or eaten by something bigger).
• Having lunch at Adventure Bay, a historic beach where early explorers anchored, and visiting the one-room Bligh Museum, which detailed the voyages of Bligh, Cook, and Tasman.
• Taking the supposedly half-hour Mavista Nature Walk, getting lost and stumbling through the forest for hours because of a missing sign(!). We saw some beautiful scenery, but got really muddy--and Eric picked up a leech. Eccch.
• Seeing our first live kangaroos (or technically, Bennett's wallabies), bounding out of the woods and onto the road in front of our car. (They must do that a lot, based on the amount of kangaroadkill we saw....)
• Walking down the path from the historic lighthouse at Cape Bruny to the windy cliff's edge overlooking Court's Island--an awesome view.

HOBART, TASMANIA

On arriving this afternoon in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania to you), we stepped off the plane to be met by my old high school buddy Eric Iversen. Eric actually lives in Oslo, Norway, but is in Hobart for a few weeks working on his PhD. We haven't seen each other in over ten years, so it's wonderfully strange to be hanging out again in a foreign city on the far side of the world.

Eric thoughtfully rented a sporty little silver Hyundai Getz for the week, so it looks like we have wheels here. Which is great, because Tasmania is a pretty big place. (I have to admit, I didn't really know anything about the island before coming here. But for the record, it's not anything like the short-lived Warner Bros. cartoon series.)

Actually, Hobart is a nice big modern city, and one of Australia's oldest settlements. Turns out there are a lot of other properly civilized towns here with a good deal of history, and a boatload of national parks, with some really rugged, remote areas as well. A little like New Zealand, come to think of it.

Our original plan to stay with Eric didn't pan out, since he's renting a room at a Bed and Breakfast rather than a regular apartment. So Chris and I found lodging at a hostel downtown, then we ended the day by driving to the top of nearby Mt. Wellington (1280 meters), which gave some great views of the city and the surrounding area.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

The Great Ocean Road, running 300 kilometers west of Melbourne, is considered one of the world's most spectacular coastal drives, so today Chris and I took an all-day bus tour along it. (In retrospect, I think the Pacific Coast Highway is a bit more dramatic, but we did see some cool stuff today.)

We started at the surfers' mecca of Torquay, where Rip Curl, Quiksilver, and Billabong surf brands all began, then stopped for coffee at Bell's Beach to watch some surfers in action. Then we drove west along the coast, stopping for a bushwalk in the rainforest, lunch at the resort town of Apollo Bay, and at various scenic locations along the way.

The most famous of these was the Twelve Apostles, which are these huge columns of rock standing out in the ocean, orphaned by the surrounding cliffs. (Actually, depending on who you talk to, there are actually seven, eight, or possibly fifteen Apostles--for some reason, no one seems to agree on the number, although they all admit there aren't twelve of them). Anyway, they make a good postcard photo. We also visited Loch Ard Gorge, rocky site of a famous shipwreck, London Bridge, which looks like, well, you know, and several other rock arches and blowholes.

The best part of the day for me, though, was when we stopped just off the main road in a eucalyptus forest where koalas were just hanging out in the trees! One was in a bush only about four feet high, so you could walk right up to him and watch him munching leaves. What's funny is that it was much closer than you'd ever get to a koala in a zoo. (It's a good thing they don't have any natural predators, because these would have made an easy snack.)

People met today:

• Pete from Wales, former pop star, traveling the world for six months with his cousin.
• Katherine from Yorkshire, studying to be a doctor, on an exchange program at the children's hospital in Melbourne. (She's only 25, so for god's sake don't tell her she looks 27!!)

Both really fun folks that Chris and I had fun hanging with all day (we were the obnoxious kids in the back of the bus who just wouldn't shut up).

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

We arrived yesterday in Melbourne to find the city in the middle of hosting the 2006 Commonwealth Games, which are just about as big a deal as the Olympics. (Who knew?) Like the Olympics, they're held every four years in a different city, and 72 Commonwealth countries compete in a range of sporting events. Right now the city is buzzing, games-related advertising and merchandise is blanketing the city, public transportation schedules have been altered, and there are thousands of foreign visitors and police in the streets--exactly like Atlanta ten years ago.

One cool thing is that in addition to the sporting events, there's a cultural festival going on throughout the city as well, so there's a lot of free music, art, etc. So tonight after completing a self-guided walking tour of the city's waterfront, I headed to the park and saw several international artists perform: First up was Miriam Makeba, "Mother Africa," the legendary South African singer who's worked with Paul Simon and performed for President Kennedy, and who at 73 is still belting 'em out (although she announced that she would be retiring soon). Her band consisted mostly of her children and grandchildren, which I thought was pretty interesting. Then I saw the Dhol Foundation, led by Johnny Kalsi of the Afro-Celt Sound System. The band consisted of an electric guitarist and seven percussionists: five dhol players, a tabla player, and a kit drummer (plus some samples and sequenced stuff). They were really good, and by the end of their set had whipped the crowd into a complete Punjabi frenzy. I then ran over to Federation Square so I wouldn't miss Talvin Singh and Tabtek, who performed a set of cool Indian-influenced electronica with computer-aided visuals. (I'd liked his music before, but hadn't heard too much of it until tonight--it was really good as well.)

Oh, and another odd "performance" I saw tonight: 72 giant metal fish sculptures (each a different species representing one of the 72 Commonwealth countries) are arranged in a line in the middle of the Yarra River, which runs through Melbourne. At various times during the night, they turn into fountains and "perform" to colored lights and music. Bizarre....

NEW ZEALAND RECAP

Favorite Things About New Zealand:

• Swimming with dolphins (and seals). Jumping off the back of a boat into the freezing-cold ocean at sunrise, with a mile of water below you, surrounded by 800 jumping dolphins, is a unique experience, to say the least! And to be able to actually interact with these powerful, playful creatures, rather than passively viewing them from afar, was the best part of all.
• Visiting all those Lord of the Rings filming locations. Getting my geek on, baby!
• The Tongariro Crossing. A full day of the most magnificent mountain views I've ever experienced--and some of the hardest uphill (and downhill) trekking as well. The volcanic landscape of the park is very surreal--for 8 hours it felt like I had left Earth altogether and gone exploring on some alien world.
• Keas!

Least-Favorite Things About New Zealand:

• Two-lane winding roads. Driving on the left isn't all that bad, but when you combine that with having to pass all those slow-ass camper vans and sheep trucks on winding, unsealed, narrow mountain roads, things can get a little hairy.
• The place is kind of empty. So many sheep, so few people. Lots of beautiful scenery, but no wild animals. Everything is neat, ordered, pristine, and lovely--but after awhile that gets a little boring. Sometimes I felt like I was driving around in a gigantic model train set.

Biggest Regret:

• Not having more time to spend in Wellington.

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND

This morning Chris, Thomas and I spent a few hours wandering amongst the flora at the sprawling Christchurch Botanical Gardens before driving outside the city to visit the fauna at Orana Wildlife Park, New Zealand's only open-range zoo. Chris had wanted to experience their "Lion Encounter Ride," where they put you inside a cage on the back of a truck while lions pounce on top and a keeper feeds them scraps of meat through the bars. The idea wasn't all that appealing to me, so I gave it a pass, although I guess it's not so different from being lowered into the ocean in a shark cage with great whites all around you, which I would totally be up for.

I was a lot more entertained by the meerkats, ringtailed lemurs, and giraffes. We were allowed to get up close and feed branches to the giraffes, which was a trip. We also had our first and only chance to see some kiwis, New Zealand's national symbol, which unfortunately are nearly impossible to encounter in the wild, being nocturnal, easily spooked, and pretty rare.

After the wildlife, we went out looking for some nightlife, since we didn't get to properly celebrate Thomas' birthday on Wednesday. But as we soon discovered, Wednesday nights in Christchurch aren't much more happening than Mondays. We ended up spending most of the night at Saints & Sinners, the downstairs bar at Base Backpackers, where we were subjected to a live band playing "funked up" covers of predictable pop and rock songs from the last 30 years. They were ridiculously slick, and I'd bet money that their lead singer had previousy been in some NZ boy band. (I mean, they played "Get Back" by The Beatles, and well, when Paul McCartney makes you look white....) But as much as I wanted to hate them, I have to admit they were pretty entertaining. Guess I'm getting soft in my old age.

NEW PICTURES

We've posted some more pictures of New Zealand in the photo gallery (there are four pages of 'em now). So check 'em out!

KAIKOURA, NEW ZEALAND

Because of its location at the intersection of two ocean currents, with extremely deep water right near shore, Kaikoura is a great place to see marine mammals and seabirds that come here to feed. You can book trips here by boat, airplane, or helicopter to see seals, albatrosses, and sperm whales, but the most popular thing to do is to swim with the dusky dolphins that travel in huge groups along the coast. (Dusky dolphins are a lot smaller than the bottlenose dolphins we're used to seeing in dolphin shows and whatnot, and they have a black-and-white color pattern. They're also supposedly the most acrobatic dolphin species.)

So this morning, at the ungodly hour of 5:45 am, Chris, Thomas, and I took a Dolphin Encounters boat trip from South Bay and traveled south along the coast until we spotted an enormous group of dolphins (our guide estimated that there were around 800 of them!). Chris and I had paid to swim with the dolphins, while Thomas stayed onboard the boat and took pictures. We were in two-piece wetsuits with hoods, but it was still friggin' cold! Especially since the sun was just barely coming up when our boat positioned itself in front of the pod and we dove in the water.

Just like when we swam with the seals, we were urged to attract the dolphins by "entertaining" them: diving underwater, making noises through our snorkels, and spinning in circles. This made us all look ridiculous, but it interested some of them enough to swim up to us for awhile and play a little before speeding off. Dozens of dolphins came up and circled me, looking at me up close and coming near enough to touch--it was really cool.

The boat dropped us in the water three times to swim, and then we just followed the pod for awhile and watched them from the boat. Seeing so many dolphins at once was incredible, and they were really acrobatic, jumping out of the water and doing backflips and whatnot. Again, very hard to capture on film, but oh well.

By this time (7 am or so), the wind had picked up, and the ocean swells were getting pretty big, so a good number of us on the boat (including me and Thomas) got pretty seasick. Fortunately we made it back to port before things got really ugly.

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND

Today we drove from the Catlins to Christchurch, stopping briefly for lunch in the Scottish-influenced city of Dunedin and at the Moeraki Boulders, which are weird spherical rocks sitting on a beach north of there. I would tell you all about the geological forces that help shape them into such perfect spheres, except I really have no idea--the explanation I was given was completely incomprehensible.

We arrived in Christchurch late in the afternoon, and checked into our hostel, X Base Backpackers, which is right on Cathedral Square in the center of town. We walked around town for a bit, and then took Thomas out to dinner, because today is his 22nd birthday. Unfortunately, after stuffing ourselves with pizza and a ridiculously rich chocolate dessert thingy, we really didn't have the energy to do any more celebrating, so we called it a night. (Christchurch is pretty dead on Sunday nights, anyway.)

KAKA POINT, NEW ZEALAND

We've decided to spend a couple of days checking out the Catlins, one of the lesser-traveled areas of New Zealand on the southern coast of the South Island. We arrived in the area yesterday afternoon, and got up early this morning to visit the Cathedral Caves, which are huge cliffside caverns only accessible from the beach at low tide. They were pretty impressive, and we arrived just as the tide was washing into them, which added a little danger to our visit. We then took some more walking trails: to a local waterfall called McLean Falls, and to a very dark abandoned railway tunnel called Tunnel Hill. Later in the afternoon, we went to the beach at Cannibal Bay, where we saw several gigantic (I mean big) sea lions laying on the beach. We were able to walk right up to them--although we had to be careful to not get too close, as they would rear up and threaten to charge. (I'll bet I could outrun one on land, but I didn't want to risk it.)

TE ANAU, NEW ZEALAND

Today we left Queenstown and drove across the Southern Alps to Milford Sound, in Fiordland National Park. The "sound" is misnamed, as it's really a fjord, with dramatic steep cliffs and hundreds of waterfalls pouring down its sides. We took a tour boat through the fjord to the sea, stopping along the way for close-up views of waterfalls and seals. We were fortunate to have mostly sunny weather today, as this area is notoriously wet and rainy (that was the case the last time I was here).

On the road through Fiordland National Park, we also stopped to see some other sights, including the Mirror Lakes (they reflect, see?), and The Chasm, a deep rock gorge cut by a roaring waterfall.

At the car park for The Chasm, we were fortunate enough to see a kea, one of New Zealand's native birds. They're a type of big green parrot that only lives in mountainous, snowy areas. (How weird is that?) They're extremely curious, and have a fondness for bright, shiny objects. They're also quite insane. This one was walking around the parking lot, alternating between carrying around a red bottle cap and picking up large rocks with its beak and throwing them around randomly. After visiting the Chasm, we returned to the parking lot to find the same kea perched on our car, tearing chunks out of the rubber around the windows. When we scared him off, he flew to the RV parked beside us and started removing parts of it. It was quite amusing.

QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND

For the past three days we've been in Queenstown, "Adventure Capital of New Zealand." Which means that if you can jump off it, jet through it, ski down it, fly over it, or fall out of it, there's an outfit here that you can pay lots of money to to help you do just that. This all came about because Queenstown was the first place in the world to offer commercial bungee (or "bungy," as they spell it here) jumping about 20 years ago, and it just snowballed from there to include other adrenalin-pumping activities like skydiving, parasailing, hang gliding, wire-flying, jetboating, zorbing, and all the rest. (Nothing involving a shark tank yet, but I'm sure that will be coming soon.) Being relatively broke, though, I haven't taken advantage of any of this "Xtreme" stuff, although some of it does look pretty fun.

Actually, the only thing we've done here, apart from laundry and spending time on the internet, has been a trip to Deer Park Heights, which is a high hill/mountain overlooking the city where--you guessed it--they shot a number of scenes for the Lord of the Rings films. (And specifically, a lot of scenes from The Two Towers: The Rohan refugees fleeing Edoras, the wargs attacking them, Legolas doing a backflip onto his horse, etc. I got to stand on the cliff that Aragorn was dragged over--but there's only about an 8-foot drop on the other side, and no river below, just grass.) Anyway, it was pretty cool to see those locations. Plus, the entire area is a park with all kinds of livestock roaming around: Deer, goats, llamas, pigs, thar, miniature horses, even buffalo. And you can feed them. It's kind of a weird combination of activities, but we had a good time.

Apparently driving up and down that steep hill was the final straw for our rental car's brakes, which had already been making noises from all the mountain roads we've traveled. After Deer Park Heights, it sounded like a jet plane taking off every time I braked, and we thought it might not be a bad idea to inform the rental car company and have them repaired. So today we did that.

Oh, and the other night we went to the movies and saw Aeon Flux, which wasn't as bad as it could have been, but wasn't great art either. (And it had virtually no relation to the original animated series.) But it kept us out of the rain, at least. The weather has been pretty lousy since we arrived here--cold, windy, and rainy, which is a change from the rest of our time in New Zealand, which has for the most part been warm and sunny.

FRANZ JOSEF TOWNSHIP, NEW ZEALAND

Today I left Chris and Thomas behind to do a half-day guided hike up the Franz Josef glacier, which was great. It's the steepest glacier in the world that offers commercial hikes like this, and our group did climb up reeeally high from the valley we started in. We still only went up a small ways, as the glacier goes high up into the alps. We had to use crampons on our hiking boots to dig into the ice, and our guide had to keep hacking steps into the glacier, as it's constantly melting and shifting. Considering we were trekking up a giant ice cube, it was surprisingly warm, and the glacier is actually surrounded by rainforest, which is pretty unusual.

After my hike, I met up with Chris and Thomas, and we took a short scenic helicopter flight over the area. Unfortunately, it was a windy day, which meant 1) it was bumpy, and 2) we couldn't fly too much higher than the trees, although we did go far enough to see some more glaciers and lots of mountain rivers. The best part for me was getting a helicopter view of Mt. Gunn, which was the mountain seen in the "lighting of the beacons" scene in The Return of the King.

NP: The Catherine Wheel, "Heal"

FRANZ JOSEF TOWNSHIP, NEW ZEALAND

Yesterday we picked up Thomas from his hostel and drove south along the west coast of the South Island. And for the first time since we've been in New Zealand, the weather turned ugly, and it was miserably wet, windy, and rainy when we stopped to view another seal colony at a place called (appropriately enough) Cape Foulwind. After getting pretty soaked, we drove on to the very grey town of Greymouth. We had planned to visit the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, but because of the weather decided to save that for today. Which was a wise decision, as it turns out, because it cleared up nicely.

The Pancake Rocks are some cool coastal rock formations of layered limestone. But what's really cool are the giant hurricane-sized waves that come in across the Tasman Sea to crash into them. The cliffs are sculpted into arches and columns from all that battering, and there are a number of blowholes where the surf shoots out through the rock. It's really an impressive show. And what also makes it weird is that the surrounding vegetation largely consists of palm trees, in a climate that's nowhere near tropical. But that's New Zealand for you!

NELSON, NEW ZEALAND

This morning Chris and I drove to Kaiteriteri, the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park, which is known for some of the finest beaches and coastal scenery in all of New Zealand.

Most people who visit the park either choose to hike for several days along a coastal track, or sea kayak along its dozens of bays and beaches. We didn't really have the time today to do either, so we chose to do a "swim with the seals" tour led by a crazy old Kiwi who goes by the name of The Walrus (see, 'cause he kind of looks like one). This guy was a trip--he had a really quiet, soothing voice just like that guy who used to paint landscapes on TV, so I kept thinking of him as the "seal whisperer." He also had an unnerving habit of bursting into song without warning as he told us some Maori legend or historical fact. Too many years at sea, I'd guess.

Anyway, we sped off in a water taxi along the coast, past the very-descriptively-named Split Apple Rock, to a colony of New Zealand fur seals on an island just offshore. We then jumped in the water (in wetsuits, because it's cold), and snorkeled toward the shore. We weren't supposed to swim within 10 meters of them, but the seals actually swam out to meet us, which was amazing. At this time of the year, the males had all left the colony, so it was only females and little seal pups. They would follow us around, and if I dove down to the bottom or swam in circles, the seals would do the same. They were definitely playing with us, which was really fun. When they weren't shooting by us or swimming up to look at us up close, they had a strange habit of "hanging" upside-down from the surface like bats, with just their hind flippers sticking up from the waves. They would also swim under us and blow bubbles, and make motions like they were barking at us underwater. It was very amusing. At one point I was trying to swim around them really fast, and two of them jumped straight out of the water, as if to say "top this." I didn't try.

After getting back on the boat, we stopped at a nearby beach to have lunch. But I almost choked on my peanut butter and jelly sandwich when The Walrus reached into his bag and pulled out hand puppets. He then proceeded to perform a one-man educational puppet show for us featuring a singing tuatara, stoat, and rat. I kid you not! People walking by on the beach were dying of laughter. I was just embarassed to be there. But I have to admit it was pretty funny.

People met today:

• Alex from just outside Toronto, who came here from Fiji and stayed at a lot of the same places we did. He'll be traveling to Asia, too, and told us that they've recently closed the border to Nepal. So perhaps none of us will be going there this year....