Bad weather, No Jump

since i forgot to add the paragraph about it yesterday, and the first paragraph was not supposed to be in a "Royal We" form: i'm now traveling with Ta-Mi (which besides sounding like a very hebrew name, it apparently means "a field of rice" or something like that) - a japanese student i met at taupo.

after the weather cancelled my trek planned for today - i registered for tandem skydiving: it means you jump of a plane with a guide doing all the hard work of making sure you land in one peace and not get splatted on the lake.
when i arrived there today i found out that my guide (a german called freddie) had a certificate from the Guinness book of world records for more then 11,000 "passengers", so i felt safe enough to go, after all - the odds were good: what are the chances that i'm 1:11000?
(by the way, the cameraman was a guy from Eilat who decided to delay for a while in taupo, for the past 5 years...)

while we were up in the air, seconds before the jump, they announced that the wind on the ground is to strong and we landed again...

i've returned to the hostel, packed up and drove 5 hours to wellington for the new year's eve.

only picture of the plane for this post:

Chicken Chutney

we've cooked Chicken Chutney today, nothing fancy - just some rice, chicken breasts and chutney souce. only then we found out that the chicken we've bought was spoiled, i think it was due to the heat in the car during the trip to the Huka Falls. to make a long story short - we have created Chicken Chutney without the chicken - in other words: rice with some sweet weird sauce, don't try this at home... tomorrow an attempt to make Field Sushi - i'll let you know of the consequences...

as you probably saw in the blueprints - i was supposed to go to the tongariro crossing tomorrow. however, i got rained out. i havn't seen a drop of rain since i got here, but they say that tomorrow the weather will lousy, the DOC decided to close the trek. just my luck...

anyway, did some jet-boat rafting near the falls, walked across lake taupo and drove for about 4 hours. and what will be next? i'm moving the schedule up a day - so Wellington will be tomorrow - right after the sky-diving. i'll let you know when i land (but check the news if you see the post is delayed)


and as promised, Pictures:



just a mountain:



Shaved:



Jet Boat:



Huka Falls:



Friendly Birds (not to a little boy they got a bite of, but to me):

Keep To The Left!

well, i'm now at Auckland, after a hot shower at the YHA hostel, seems ok so far.

i've got my car, i think it's the one they photographed for the ad in the internet, how many cars do they have anyway?

pictures:

as you can see, my first day in auckland is a long and fruitful one. we'll see what happends later

found out how hard it is to do the traffic circle when sitting on the wrong side of the road, but i think it will be ok from now on...

'night.

Kaneti

Hongkong

Well, after being in Hongkong for around 30 hours, I'm in the airport again, and there are a few things I've learned:

• Shark balls (?!?) are a trivial part of a sushi dish
• in reference for previous line: don't order things you can't pronounce.
• they are fixed on standards: a Big-Mac won't come with extra-cheese, even if you personally ask for it from the shop manager (who will then call the main office to confirm).
• half of the population here is offering foot massage, the other half is taking them.
• a German pub means the owner tries to grow a mustache. it doesn't mean he has German beer or that he can pour any bear at all.
  

no pictures for now, maybe later on today. this place has no where to download them...

--- EDIT ---

and here they come:

some snacks:
Dr. Martens Shop, am i the only one finding it amusing?
i got bored, so i stated taking pictures of people taking pictures, here is one:
and the hong kong airport:

wouldn't you like this level of medical service?

The Blueprints

here is a rough blueprint of what i'm planning to do, it will probably change a bit as time (and the trip) goes by...

• 26/12/2007, 20:00 - Take-Off! my plane leaves to Hong-Kong, a day and a half there and then straight to auckalnd (the northern island)
• 29/12/2007 - Auckland, picking up a car i've rented in advance and touring the city a bit
• 31/12/2007 - the Tongariro Crossing track
• 02/01/2008 - a ferry ride to Picton (the southern island)
• 04-06/01/2008 - the Abel Tasman Track
• 08/01/2008 - maybe Arthur's Pass, a short track to relax on
• 09/01/2008 - some Glacier walking and touring Wanaka for a few days
• 14/01/2008 - celebrating my birthday in Queenstown
• 17-19/01/2008 - the Routebern Track
• 22/01/2008 - touring the Catlins
• 25-28/01/2008 - taking the Milford Track
• 31/01/2008 - touring Mount Cook
• 02/02/2008 - Christchurch and Kaikoura
• 06/02/2008, 08:00 - Departure from Christchurch to Hong-Kong via Auckland, spending a day or so in Hong-Kong again.
• 08/02/2008, 03:05 - Plane landing in Tel-Aviv... The End...

The Beginning

it has all begun one September afternoon, i believe it was the weekend.
i was quite bored (as often happens during the weekends) so me and Boaz decided to have a beer on the beach, nothing fancy.

i don't know how we got to the subject, but he started talking again about the trip he had after he left the army. and suddenly it hit me - i need a vacation. a long one. i haven't been on an actual vacation (of more then a few days) since the 11th grade, and that was like ages ago.

i thought about the main concept for the vacation, and realized that there are two major goals for it:

1. see the outside world, the original one.
   
2. get away from everything i know.
   

and New-Zealand is a good place to do them both... it's very far, and with beautiful views (or at least so they say). just to pack what i have with me, and to go where i know nothing and no-one.

I'll spare you the shopping and preperations i've made up till now, but just so you'd know - i'm now the proud member of 3 different shopping clubs, all for traveling equipment. (not counting the frequent flyer I've made for El-Al, AIG insurance, AAA automotive, ACE-NZ car rentals and a few more various clubs I'll probably join during the trip).

and now, let's get to the real deal...

Disclaimer

this blog is all about my trip to New-Zealand, this is it's main purpose and you will probably not see anything else here. you can expect to find here short posts, maybe some pictures and the over-all look and feel of the trip. (oh, and it's an open blog so some censorship will be in order)

two small points i want to clarify:

• this blog is only to avoid being marked as a spammer, don't take it as a personal journal and don't think I've wrote something here specifically for you - you are not special!
  
• it's in English because I believe I'm not very likely to find a Hebrew keyboard on the go. cope with it.

and with that behind us, let get to the interesting (?) stuff...

regards
Liron Kaneti
(soon to be) somewhere in New-Zealand

p.s.
from now on, NZ stands for New-Zealand, don't ask about it every time again.

p.p.s.
if there isn't a new post after a 2-3 weeks period, please send a rescue party.

thanks again
Liron Kaneti
(soon to be) somewhere in New-Zealand