bungy jump video

I finally got around to doing it. Here's the first video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo7cddQkhDI

Nz day 29

I'm at LAX. Vacation is over. Reality begins again. I'm tired, but not that much since I didn't watch as many movies as I wanted to. I watched all of Die Hard 4, but dozed off on 1408. I had to rewind and watch half of it again.

It was a great trip and already I can't remember everything I've done. I've tried just about every meat pie, cookie, candy, and dessert bars I saw. I'll try to get in a run tomorrow and start back up the workouts, but i'm sure I packed on a few pounds.

I guess that and the ton of mail and work i'll have to do is the price for a month of traveling, huh. Oh well, sign me up again. Maybe South America or Africa next...

I'll be going through all the pictures and posting them on the blog and in my facebook account if people are interested, so stay tuned. I also have videos to post also. Between this and real work, i'll be tied up till my birthday.

thanks

Cliff

sent from mobile phone

Nz day 28 130pm

Well, it's coming to an end. Surfing yesterday was great. Caught a few waves with the new board and had a great time. I got some burns on the side of my arms where the board rubbed against them and the water suit I was wearing. Jamie got a few more burns than me because her suit was shorter in the leg area than mine was. She also did better than me on the board as she was able to stand up a few times. We both had a fantastic time and will have to plan a surfing only trip in the future. Maybe something domestic like Cali or maybe in the Great Lakes area.

We've got an hour or so left in paihia before we catch a bus back to auckland. One more wakeup and its back to the US...

thanks

Cliff

sent from mobile phone

Nz day 26 940am

Christmas turned out to be a rainy day. We booked a boat ride on a speed boat called Excitor. It was a nice ride and they took us to a place called "hole in the rock". It was natural donut-like formation that the bus was able to drive through. Afterwards, they took us to an island call Otehei. It should've been a great place to chill until our pickup time, but the rain didn't help.

We made it back to our room around 5 and watched tv and played Scrabble the rest of the evening.

We had to catch the bus at 720am for our day trip to Cape Reinga. I think at least we'll do some sand boarding but i'm not sure what else. At the end of the day, we'll get dropped off at this surf place and spend tomorrow learning to surf. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm sure Jamie will be surfing in no time. I just hope my weight doesn't hinder me...

Nz day 27 12pm

Surfing, or the attempt thereof, has been a blast Again, my weight is a disadvantage, but it's still been a lot of fun. We went out yesterday for about an hour and a half and we went out this morning and we'll go out again in about an hour.

Jamie, the fish, has been doing quite well and she might be able to stand later today. I'm going to try a different board. It's going to be a bit more dangerous for me because I won't have the skills to use it properly, but it should compensate for the wait and provide a more enjoyable experience. We'll see...

Nz day 24 917am

Ahhh, Christmas Eve!! Heading north to Pahia for some fun in the sun. We'll spend a couple of days on the beach and then head off to do some surfing for a bit. That ought to be interesting.

We spent the night of day 22 in taupo, the home of mt doom (ruapeha and ngaruhoe). We didn't do much there. Walked around and found a hot spring to hang out in a bit. It was very refreshing. We later went grocery shopping for peanut butter, tuna, and bread. Mmmmm, good eatin'. After some time in an internet café, we headed back to the hostel and chilled.

Up at 9, it was back to Auckland. We had to go through rotorua and drop people off and pick people up. We got in at about 2 and spent the day walking around. We found some flyers and were going to check out an bar made from ice and check out their sky tower and a casino. Well, the ice bar, 5 below, costs 30 to enter and included a drink and you couldn't take pictures. We found a coupon for 5 dollars off, but we said screw it. We didn't feel like spending that much for a 5 minute walkthrough and no "cool" photos.

We went to the sky tower and I was a bit keen to do what I thought was another bungy jump. But alas, it wasn't. It was something called a sky jump and it looked kinda goofy and expensive.

We went inside the tower and was disappointed again. The casino looked ok, but the blackjack tables had the continual shuffle looking machines. For the uninitiated, there are a couple different types of card shuffling machines or shufflemasters. There are the ones that shuffle decks of cards after the decks have been used and then there's the one where the dealer takes the cards after every hand and places in the shuffler. I'm not sure how many decks are used with the shuffler or how often it shuffles, but I do know this: the odds shift even greater for the house. I've played these machines in vegas and I hated the experience. I won't go into too much detail about the house vs. the player's edge in blackjack, but I know these machines don't help the player.

We saw a poker tournament going on and no cash games. So we left out of here and started walking around to find a grocery store. After about an hour of no luck and a few walks up some san francisco-like hills, we made our way back to the city. Since there didn't seem like there was much else to do, we found a little mall with a food court and a cinema. We got some food, a laksa for me and a burger for jamie, played some Scrabble with the cards I bought in Franz Josef, and watched Beowulf on the IMAX. Not a bad night...

Nz day 22 8am

Off to taupo again as we head back north. Didn't do much yesterday. Had some tom yum soup again and watched a movie, "hitman". It wasn't too bad.

Jamie was excited when she got on the bus yesterday. She got some dolphin photos like she wanted even though she had to get up at 530am to make the trip.

Today marks the beginning of our last week. A little depressing after seeing all of our new friends go away and the reduction of activities. Even though we're revisiting places we've already been, I hope we can find something new to do.