New Zealand Update

Music as a weapon?

2008-10-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

This idea came about when I think of bands that make it a point to take a stand on issues, bands like Rage Against the Machine that can cause so much chaos that they'll get the stock market closed early, enrage thousands of people to take action, protest against governments, be banned from playing in certain cities, take the media and turn it upside down, or at least get the media saying that they're terrorists. I think it's interesting to look at how music can have such a huge impact on the way we view certain issues and become a tool to promote views or at least to entertain people. Next time you've got some music on, take a listen to the lyrics and see what points are trying to be presented. (Reggae music is also a classic form of "weaponry")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu67yo-3jfw

Technology is Amazing!

2008-10-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday WBIM went international! During my show 12 of my international friends all gathered on skype to have a "semi-reunion." It was soooo incredible to talk to 12 people at one time while they listened to my radio show online. People from the west coast, Virginia, Germany, the UK, New Zealand, New York, and who could forget Holland.

I can't describe how awesome it was, so I think I'll let the video describe it for me.

Music and the Radio Foreign Style

2008-10-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

I'm working at my college radio station for the 5th or 6th semester this year, and I gotta tell ya, it gets better each semester. I've done specialty shows playing everything from metal to oldies and everything in between. But this semester I'll be sticking to foreign music, or everything and anything outside the United States of America. The format comes from my journey to New Zealand and my want and need to continue learning about cultures and the music people have outside of my own country and aspects that can relate to people all over the world, after all, music is the great communicator.

The first hour involves a set of random songs from all over- Germany, New Zealand, the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica, West Africa, Norway, Sweden and many more countries. The second hour is a dance party, with house/dance/techno music, mainly from European countries (make sure to get your strobe lights out). And the third hour will play more music, but focus on heavier music toward the end of the hour. All throughout you can hear my intern and me and any special guests we have talking about international news, futbol, and interesting stories. If you enjoy a wide variety of music and have time on Tuesdays from 4-7pm (10pm-1am in Europe) you should totally listen. Here's the website: www.bridgew.edu/wbim or you can listen on the air waves if your close to Bridgewater, MA on 91.5FM

Take it in and learn to love it!

T.Hab

National Geographic Submission

2008-09-04T15:03:00.000-07:00

Here is a video I submitted to National Geographic for a competition. I'll know on Sunday if I win. The theme was supposed to be on a "Journey that Changed my Life."

Sydney

2008-07-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I've had an amazing week in Sydney and I have one day left in New Zealand. I arrived and met up with Christiana on Thursday, saw Don Giovanni in the Sydney Opera House on Friday, had some German food and beer at a Bavarian Restaraunt, walked across the Harbor Bridge, saw thousands of flying dogs (or bats), ate in China Town, saw Kung Fu Panda, walked the Bondi beach to Cogee beach cliff walk, climbed on the cliff, shopped at Aldi, slept on a beach in Jarvis Bay (where we nearly froze), saw a 81m waterfall, went to an amazing wildlife park where we feed kangaroos, a pony and some birds, and just fully enjoyed what Sydney had to offer. It was an amazing week. Check out more pictures on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060077&l=7e166&id=34506567

Pictures from the past few weeks

2008-07-15T20:23:00.001-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057160&l=5612f&id=34506567
Go here to see my album of pictures from AUS and NZ
Meet and Greet with friends
Jeremy has his first Fergburger
A tree in Cairns
Emu sausage, Crocodile, Kangaroo, Barramundee, and a German beer. A great meal!
South Island of NZ

In AUS for another 1.5 weeks

2008-07-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Hey all. dont have much time to write, im in a internet cafe in Cairns. I've just finished a few weeks with my family. that was fun touring around the south island and diving the great barrier reef. since they left, i've hiked for 4 hours in a jungle with no guide, slept on a beach and have been doing all this with my good friend from Germany, Jakob. I'm heading down to Sydney (where the Pope will be) to meet up with another German friend, Christiana. It'll be quit the adventure. I'll be home August 1st. In order to see pictures of my family, you'll have to see my dad's facebook account at this point. maybe i can post pictures later. I'll be seeing you all soon enough, so I don't really miss you too much. I'm glad I'll be seeing you all, but very sad about leaving my many friends from around the world. It's a learning experience I guess. I got some sweet pictures of a turtle at the reef and will be looking forward to sharing some amazing stories when i return. PEACE!

Final Weeks.........

2008-06-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, this is almost it. I've got a few more weeks left. And it's kinda sad to think I'll be leaving all these cool people I've met in the past six months. It's been frickin' amazing, and it's gone by really fast. After the dive I had classes for 2 more weeks. Not too bad, I've also been blessed to have not had any "finals," although some of the papers counted for final grades. So I have about a week to just take it all in and relax while others study and take tests. On Friday the 6th there was a final dinner party for the residents of WSA, our apartment complex. It was Medieval themed so I took about two hours and made a sweet costume and helmet. The cost was $20 for all you can eat, one free drink, live music and time to party with some really neat people. The night went really well, awards were given out. I received the "You always know when I'm around" award. After the dinner and dancing and trying to catch eels in a eel pond, people went out to continue dancing around Auckland. I had papers due the following Monday and Tuesday, so Saturday and Sunday where spent studying and writing. This is where my weeks get really interesting...

Sunday I woke up at 10am, worked all day to finish the paper with breaks every 2-3 hours. I finished up around 8pm, watched a movie and then went back to edit the paper. By the time I finished, it was 2am (I edited with some friends). The Eurocup 2008 was beginning and the games are on at 4am and 6:35am. I had the opportunity to watch Germany v. Poland with some German friends I met here in NZ. We went to a bar (at 6:30am) and watched the game with 150 other Germans... with an all you can eat breakfast and 150 screaming Germans, it was an amazing sporting event! AMAZING! Since then I've watched most of the games with other internationals and have gained a new love for futbol/soccer. (Especially watching the Netherlands play- they're sooooo good!) Jakob, Dave and I decided we needed to go swimming after the game ended at 8am. We looked online and found a nice hotel that would have a pool, unfortunately the pool was closed for renovations. But they offered a complimentary swim at the local YMCA, Tepid Baths. So, we went. We got in and swam around for 2 hours and left... awesome. I handed in my papers and gave a presentation that afternoon. I also met up with my class for a practice run for our final project on Tuesday (I haven't slept in over 30 hours....) So you can imagine how my brain must have been functioning. Hahaha. That night I got some sleep (about 4 hours) because I had to wake up and watch the Netherlands game at 4:30am. I had my final that afternoon, and joined my classmates for a drink to celebrate the end of that class.

Wednesday night has been great for the past month or so. Salsa dancing! But this time my goal was to dance with women over 30... pretty sweet goal. The two girls I go with usually brought some other people, and I just thought it would be fun overall to get some older ladies to dance with me. By the end of the night I achieved my goal, 4. One woman was easily 65 and had been to Cuba a few years back (maybe like 30) to learn the Cuban style salsa. She also mentioned her grandkids and that she was leaving for France the next morning. Two of the other women had beginner skills and the other lady had no idea how to salsa, so I just spun her around. Overall, a very successful night!

Thursday I hit up Victoria park market and Ocean Hunter, another spearfishing store. I wish I knew about these guys earlier, they were a lot nicer and offer a lot more trips to go diving, oh well. I got a new snorkel and some gloves with my gift certificates I had won from the competition on the Queens Bday. That night a few of us participated in the Kiwi tradition of burning a couch during finals week. Hahahaha, a whole couch!

Friday- Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament! You better believe it! Just like Air Guitar, there is a comp to RPS. And we got a free wrist band for just participating! Zach got 2nd in the nation and received a ton of gifts from Woodstock, the drink sponsoring the event. He got a leather jacket, some shirts and hats, coozies and a bunch of other stuff. I got through to the 3 or 4th round. After staying out pretty late, we headed back to WSA, Saturday was an even bigger event.

Saturday- THE ALL BLACKS RUGBY GAME! I woke up at 6:30am to watch the Netherlands game, went to the same bar and ate the breakfast again, only this time it was with Dutch people. After the game I went back to bed until 11:30ish. I did some editing on videos until about 4pm. At 4pm everyone began to "get ready" for the game. We put on All Blacks gear and got a little rowdy. The game was amazing, we spent $60 for tickets and were located in the front row at the endzone. You can see us in the picture. We also got on TV a few times. The camera focused on 5 little boys standing in front of us and we basically took the attention away from them. It was cool hearing the Haka come from a bunch of huge rugby players, also knowing that earlier this year I lead the exact same Haka! The All Blacks beat England 37-20. Incredible. After the game we walked back to the city hitting up some pubs along the way. The Dogs Bollicks had live music and people danced, even some of the Englanders who had been beaten earlier that night. I stayed out with Christiana until 4am and got to see some interesting street performers. It was an amazing night.

Now it's Sunday night/ Monday morning and I'm typing this up. I'm glad, knowing that I'll be seeing most of you in another 6 weeks. I'll give you guys some more stories later. Peace.

Diving on the Queens Birthday

2008-06-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Guys and Gals!
This weekend was a very special weekend here in NZ. Here in NZ they "celebrate" the Queen's Bday by giving everyone a day off on Monday, leaving plenty of time for people to go away for a long weekend. This weekend was fantastic. On Friday I got up, packed my gear, and waited until my car ride came to pick me up. At 3pm we headed out of the city to the Coromandel for a weekend of diving. After arriving in this small town a few hours later, we grabbed some food and headed to the "bach" (a NZ term for summer home). This home was perfect. Everything on the walls was diving/fish related. The house also had a separate mini house with 3 beds and the garage also had 4 beds in it, a perfect place for a giant sleepover with friends who love to go diving. There was a sweet fish cleaning hut too.

Friday night we watched a spearfishing dvd and talked for a few hours. We woke up at 8am Saturday and headed out for a day of diving. The boat we had was a piece of work. After finally getting it started we got out to the dive spot and hopped in. I shot some butterfish while the other guys looked for crawfish. We moved onto another spot which was know for being the sharkyist spot around. Too bad the water was too cold for there to be any around. Here I shot two John Dory. One fell off the stringer somehow. Maybe a shark ate it... We got picked up after spending about 2 hours there and went over to another spot, not very fishy there. It was late and the sun was going down, so we headed in. There was a rainbow on the horizon. A nice finish to a days dive. That night we took it easy, we had the competition the next morning.

Sunday was amazing, although I didn't get a partner for the competition and didn't know what half the fish looked like that I could shoot, I had a good time. The weather was perfect and the divers, 23 pairs, said that this was one of the best places to dive. My main objective for the day was to shoot a kingfish, but even the best divers there weren't seeing any. Since it's getting into winter most of the bigger fish are heading further out to sea. I saw some eels, large schools of fish, and almost had a stingray take one of my fish away from me. As soon as I shot the fish, the stingray would come out of nowhere and try to grab it off my spear. It was cool to watch. A few hours later after looking for the 4 fish (out of the 20 on the list) that I knew I could shoot, I ended up with 2 butterfish and two other fish that a diver threw back into the water... not what I wanted, but then again, when none of the Kiwis want to be your partner, what else can you do. The comp ended at 3pm and the weigh-in was at 5pm. All the fish shot went to be auctioned off to raise money for the Lions Club. I kept mine, a student has to eat more than just pasta sometimes. There was a nice dinner that evening at 6:30. All the divers got together for the prize ceremony and I won $80 to a dive shop from a drawing they had. I had a great nights sleep.

Monday was gorgeous and we couldn't leave without some crawfish, so we went diving for a few hours after cleaning up the house. The crawfish are like lobster, except they don't have claws. They are also really good to eat... I mean really good! I got home around 5pm and met up with some of my friends. We had the crawfish I named Herbert. It was the end to a sweet-as weekend.

Here is the link to see more photos from that weekend: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055835&l=f2d0d&id=34506567

I'm going fishin'

2008-05-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
I'll have to be brief, I'm leaving to go spearfishing in 1 hour... FINALLY! But I'll tell you that these past two weeks have been fun, as usual. I've been surfing, salsa dancing, been to a rugby game and had a lot of parties with some friends. School is almost over, another 7 days or so. I saw Indiana Jones here too. I watched one of the coolest movies/documentaries recently. Go get it, Sharkwater, it will leave you gasping for air. Hahahaha. I'll write more after this weekend. Hopefully I'll have some sweet pictures to show for it, or Ryan will be really, really, really disappointed. I hope all are doing well. I'm going to Australia, so if anyone wants a Koala or something, let me know asap.

Just a radical update

2008-05-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

So it's been about two weeks since I've been back from break physically, but mentally I'm pretty much still there. The school system here isn't too much help. Classes are sometimes too relaxed and assignments are really unclear most of the time. And the grading schedule... crap dudes. They only grade 3 major assignments, not what I'm used too. I like American school systems, or at least my awesome teachers back home (BI, GS, JA, and most other comm teachers). My camera is doing well. Sorry I haven't able to put much up on the tube.

This past weekend I was on a volunteer weekend trip to an island near Auckland. There Garrett, myself and Jacob (along with 4 students from U of Auckland) planted trees, weeded, went bird watching and had a pretty large meal that took hours to cook. Not necessarily because we had a lot of food, but because the stove and oven were limited in their capabilities to cook that much. Let me explain further, TWO people live on the island, the park ranger and a helper, who just so happened to have an amazing beard and never take off his helmet, seriously, the dude wore it everywhere. After dinner taking 3 hours to eat and make, David (who came later that afternoon), Jacob and I went for a night hike and as usual with me there it turned into a night swim. I think Zach's favorite quote of mine on the South Trip was "I have to get in the water..." Since we were away from the city the stars were phenomenal. And something to remind me of home- Bio-luminescence or those little things that light up in the ocean water. Seeing this brought me back to Puerto Rico with my buddies Ryan and Bryan. Where we saw the highest concentration of Bio- luminescence in the world. That was incredible. Jacob and Dave had never seen this so they also joined me in the swim. And to be as close to nature as possible, I guess you could say we left some items on the beach, towels, shirts, wallets... you know. The birds were awesome to listen to and made some incredible sounds. Some sounded like robots, others sounded like really cool birds. It's hard to explain unless you're there. That trip was fun and it was nice to work outside and get a little dirt under my fingernails.

My parents are coming down to NZ and AUS in June. I'm really excited to see my bro too. They're gonna see some really cool stuff. I hope all y'all wished your moms a Happy Mother's Day. I know mine deserves it. (I'd also like to wish Barbara a happy mom's day too).

Most of my friends got back from their trips. Michelle spent 3.5 weeks in AUS and got offered a job taking underwater photographs for a dive company, getting paid some cash and going on free dives... I was the first one to show her how to use a camera underwater, I should get some credit although, she has some natural talent too. She's pretty cool.

That's what I've been doing, also writing some papers, and attending a Latin Dance class. July 27th we be here sooner than you think guys... It'll be nice to see your faces again.

Keep it real.

(This is a picture of me on the Milford Sound boat and my waterproof housing and Caitlyn) (And another picture of the night at air guitar with Katelyn)

South Island Part 3

2008-05-03T03:22:00.000-07:00

DAY SEVEN: We saw the Pancake rocks in Punakaiki, some really interesting rock formations. That took about 20 minutes and then we drove about 2 hours to Greymouth. Here Boris, Zach, Travis and I would tour the Monteith’s Brewery. It was amazing. We were able to sample the seven different kinds of beer they offered and learn how the plant is run by only 9 employees. Monteith’s is one of the better tasting beers here in NZ. Travis drove to the Glaciers were we would camp on the side of the road for that evening.

DAY EIGHT: GLACIERS!!!!!! We woke up around 8 and headed over to the town were the Fox glacier was located. I wanted to rent our own equipment and climb the glacier by ourselves, but the other dudes thought it might be too dangerous… lame. We got a guided tour for about $85. We arrived a little late for the 9:15 tour so we had to wait for the 1:30pm tour. We found a nice lake to walk around and the dudes ran ahead. I did half the walk by myself. It was a good time to think and play my harmonica. The weather has been absolutely fantastic this whole trip. Blue skies on days we need to hike and rain on the days we drive or in the night. My body has become acclimated to the weather too; I’ve been wearing sandals for most of the days. The snow capped mountains reflected off the lake. It was gorgeous. We went to Fox glacier next and met up with some other friends. After an hour and a half hike we finally reached the glacier, put on the show spikes and started walking. I didn’t take any pictures, but I did a lot of filming. I left the picture taking up to the 5 other guys that were with me. The glacier was awesome once we reached it. We saw some big creveses and some ice caves. It was a cool place, literally. After the hike we camped with the three Canadians that night.

DAY NINE: To Queenstown! We began our six to seven hour drive around 9am. We drove about four hours to Wanaka and stopped for lunch. It was a nice little town that reminded me of Colorado and a place where mom would like to go. It had small shops and was surrounded by mountains and a lake. I got some curry and the guys grabbed some burgers. At Queenstown we met up with Garrett, Caitlyn, Morgan, Jenna, Anthony, Adam and Matt. I switched groups and stayed with them the rest of the night. The dudes got a hostel and I slept in the car again that night. While hanging with Garrett and them, I decided to join them on their overnight cruise of Milford Sound the next day. I called and reserved my spot. $140 later and I was going to be very pleased with my decision. The girls made some phenomenal pizza and we had a nice dinner. We went to sleep early, around 11pm.
DAY TEN: I woke up in the car around 8am. Got some free breakfast from Garrett’s hostel, the Black Sheep, and we left by 9:30. It was a seven hour drive to Milford Sound and our overnight cruise left at 4:30pm. I sat up front in Garrett’s Wicked van, the girls slept in the back. The drive from here would begin to leave me speechless or give me screams of joy. Milford is frickin’ sick! The mountains and waterfalls cascading down the mountains, the trees and jungles so thickly outlining the earth’s floor, the snow that covered the tops of the mountain which melted into the water… It was breathtaking and this was just the drive to the cruise. We pulled off at this one look out and all I could hear was the Jurassic Park theme song in my head and being sung by everyone; mountains, trees and waterfalls- gorgeous.
THE CRUISE: We got on the boat by 4:30 and we started our cruise. This would end up being one of the greatest nights since I’ve been here. We got a nice tour of the Milford Sound, a fantastic dinner, the chance to kayak the Sound, swim, drink, and meet some great people. It was so frickin’ cool. Dinner was a pumpkin and kumara (NZ sweet potato) soup, pork roast with apple sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes, homemade French fries, steamed veggies, and two salads, a green and pasta. It was so delicious. And for dessert we had an apple pie with ice cream and caramel topping. The kayaking was great. The mountain faces were covered in waterfalls. The beauty of this place will leave anyone speechless. Matt and I were able to jump off the top of the boat a few times, first we dove in, then I did a front flip in and lastly we did a double canon ball into the Milford sound. It was so sweet. The water was a bit cold, but nothing I haven’t dealt with before. (I did all this jumping and swimming while wearing my Speedo). That evening we all sat down an talked. We had the opportunity to meet Tom from Switzerland, and Dick from Great Britain. These guys were really cool. Tom was studying an MBA in Australia and came over to visit for 2 weeks. He enjoyed the fact I hadn’t showered in a few days and that I hadn’t eaten well in the same amount of time. He thought that to be funny. It was great talking to Tom and he joined us in playing spoons. The game had Caitlyn, Morgan, Tom, Matt, Garrett, Jenna and I. It was awesome.. It was a nice evening on the water. I slept in the same quarters as Anthony, Matt and Adam. I was nice to finally sleep in a bed. I slept “sound”ly that night.

DAY ELEVEN: Waking up on the boat as we began to move. We were headed towards the Tasman Sea to see the rest of the Sound. It had rained most of the night and the waterfalls were more prevalent and some were larger. I wrapped my camcorder in a trash bag and headed out onto the deck. It was raining and the sea was getting rougher. Breakfast was eggs, sausage, ham, seasoned tomatoes, and granola with yogurt. It was great. I had done a ton of filming the day before and looked forward to seeing how my “water-proofing” would work. It went well. I left my lens exposed and got some good footage of the water and the falls. Garrett enjoyed this weather, he said “This is how the sea is supposed to be…” We all talked like old sea dogs. I agree, The sea is supposed to be powerful and scare the crap outta people. We turned back once we reached the end and headed toward the dock. A few of us had tickets to stop off at the underwater observatory, the deepest in the world. It was like looking at an aquarium, except it was the ocean. The fish species were quite cool and it was interesting being down that deep. (About 20 meters) It was also cool knowing I can dive that deep in one breath! We began the drive back to Queenstown. I met up with Zach and Travis. Boris had left that morning. I grabbed a Fergburger, it was one of the best burgers I ever had. I had the Southern Swine, which contained “Prime NZ beef, American streaky bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, aioli and tomato relish,” a beautiful piece of food. We drove back to Te Anau that night... My day had a ton of driving in it. In Te Anau Zach and I grabbed a pizza. The town pretty much shut down at 9pm. We found a nice place to camp. On the way to the camp site we saw a ton of sheep in this one pen. We saw that no one was around and decided to have some fun. We jumped the fence and with my camera, we began chasing the sheep. It was an amazing site. The sheep ran in groups and it was incredible. There were so many of them. We stepped in tons of sheep crap and had to wash up after the chase. It was pretty sweet. Travis slept in the car and we had the tent again. It rained most of the night. We heard dinosaurs. (Travis thinks it was Elk making the noise, but I know better).
DAY TWELVE: I drove today to Milford Sound so the boys could enjoy the view. They had a day cruise and I would journal during the 2.5 hours they were out seeing Milford. The rain cleared up for them. I’m glad they could get nice weather. We drove back thru the Homer tunnel. There was a huge waterfall which was supplied from the glacier on top of the mountain. We decided to hike it and I wanted to be under the falls. Melting snow was the reason for this waterfall... I grabbed my suit and began to hike. It turned out to be further than it looked. A full 45 minute hike with NO PATH! It was like hiking up mount doom again, just not as long. The water was pretty cold, but definitely worth the hike. (In the picture you can see me in the bottom right corner). We drove back to Te Anau and tried to reach the Canadians. I decided to drive, and drive, and drive. I drove for a few hours and we reached Milford, 30 minutes outside of Dunedin. We camped at a whale fossil lookout.

DAY THIRTEEN: The lookout was beautiful in the morning. We decided to drive to Nugget point before we’d head to Dunedin. On the way there we met up with the Canadians. The point was really cool. We saw a few seals at the bottom of the cliffs. We drove to Dunedin after. We grabbed some lunch. We were having a tour of the Speight’s brewery at 4. It was more like a museum with a lot of interactive pictures, video, and wax figures. We met up with Gina’s sister. (Gina goes to AUT). Moniek showed us around the town. After a late night, I headed back to the car to sleep. I was a pretty fun night. In the picture you can see me dropping some nuggets off at nugget point...

South Island Part 2

2008-04-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

DAY FOUR: We left Nelson this morning and headed over to the Abel Tasman region. After stopping along a look out points we reached the kayak company we would rent from the next day. We were going to kayak the Abel Tasman. The sun set on the beach was absolutely gorgeous. We talked to a local and found out about a “free” camp ground, near a historic cemetery. We ate dinner in a field and watched cows graze. It was a peaceful night, we went to a “jam night” at a local pub, but nothing was really happening so we went back to the campground and slept.
DAY FIVE: We got up and headed over to the kayak center. Here Zach and I, as well as Boris and Travis, would kayak the Abel Tasman for the next 7 hours. We saw bird colonies, where I almost got crapped on, seal colonies and gorgeous beaches. We swam in the ocean that afternoon. It’s crazy to think that at night it can be insanely cold even with a jacket and sweatshirt on, and then midday you can swim in the ocean. Watching the seals swim was fantastic. They have a great life, swimming, sleeping, sun bathing, and swimming away from sharks. The sunset was epic. We had a fire and ate spaghetti that evening. The stars were stunning.
DAY SIX: The car is an awful place to sleep. I would much rather sleep in the tent. I woke up around 8:30 and took my daily walk to take in the sights. We ate breakfast and headed out. Today would be a driving day. We have to get from Takaka to Punakaiki, where we can see the pancake rocks. Boris drove for three hours and then we stopped at a lake to hike and eat lunch. The landscape reminded me of upstate New York. The birds are fascinating to listen to, their songs are like ice cream in my belly. I drove for the next 3 hours and we got to another beach to watch the sun set. I did a bit of writing and filming. The dudes stayed in a hostel while I slept in the car, my money is getting pretty tight. The sound of waves crashing is great to wake up too. DAY SEVEN: Today we see the pancake rocks and Monteith’s Brewery. Hope you’re all enjoying my trip. Jeremy, we’re going to see C.O.B. on June 26th, looking forward to seeing you dude.

South Island Tour: Part 1

2008-04-21T02:26:00.001-07:00

Hey y’all, here are some pictures from my South Island tour. It’s the 3rd day and already I am amazed at the beauty this country. This won’t be a full account of everything I do, but you’ll get the more interesting parts…

DAY ONE: We saw Christchurch and its gorgeous church. Then we were off to Kaikora. Zach, Boris, Travis and I are moving counter clockwise around the island. On the way there we saw a hitchhiker, we drove past him 2km, and turned around to “pick him up” (a Dumb and Dumber reference). His name was Ian and he was from Canada. He had hitched around the South Island for about 2 months and was heading up north. Once in Kaikora we headed out to a beach and slept there that evening. We sleep two in a tent and two in the back of the station wagon. We tried to get a fire going that evening but the wind and spitting rain keep the twigs and cardboard from lighting. It was nice to look at the snow capped mountains, which seemed to light up the sky.

DAY TWO: We woke up to the most beautiful sight. The sun rising over the ocean and the snow capped mountains on the other side. A seal even swam gracefully across the glistening ocean. We headed over to a seal colony and I truly felt like a National Geographic videographer as I crept up to get close to the seal to film them on the beaches and rocks; big creatures with a tendency to bark at anyone who gets too close as I found out. We met up with some others for dinner and slept on a side road. They had a stove in their van, so we enjoyed spaghetti and baked beans for dinner. I sang songs and played my harmonica as we ate and drank by the fire.

DAY THREE: We were on our way to Nelson when we found an spectacular river with rock cliffs on each side. It has been chilly every day and gets extremely frigid at night and in the morning. It averages around 10 degrees Celsius (about 52 F). Three of us decided to do some cliff jumping into some of the coldest water I’ve EVER swam in. Ryan, you know how it feels… This cold numbed your body and sends you into a hyperventilating state, a great feeling when you try to swim over to the rocks to get out. It was one of the most exhilarating things I’ve ever done. I jumped 4 times. We then proceeded to hike around the river and scale some of the cliffs without falling in. The Pelorus Bridge (where we jumped) on the way to Nelson would be a mountain man’s playground. Karson, I did a little Marmot sun bathing to warm up. We drove to Nelson and here I am typing to you all. We’re off to Able Tasman tomorrow and will be hiking and kayaking there for two days. I’ll keep you posted.

Feel free to check out my facebook album for more pictures.

Bronze Medal at Unigames

2008-04-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hey, the Ultimate team took 3rd place at the Unigames this year, partly because we had some amazing players on our team. I was able to score 10-12 points and assist on many others. Overall AUT took 3rd place in the whole games. Not too bad compared to last year. Now I'm off to the South Island in 3 hours. Thought I'd show a bit more pictures from the games, one from the Blues Rugby game and one of some friends I've made while here. The pyramid picture is AUT's Ultimate team, the kid with the mohawk is my roommate from Florida, his name is Travis and he loves God. The action picture is me tossing the disc for a BEAutiful catch. The Stadium is in Auckland and that's where the Blues play. And friends, Jocelyn (Black shirt) and Kat from Canada and Zach a friend who will be travelling with me to the South Island. Hope you all enjoy the pictures.

Unigames and Rugby Games

2008-04-15T01:51:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

It’s Tuesday, first day of the Unigames. It poured cats and dogs today. Rain and strong winds put some doubt in our minds about how the game would go, but as soon as we started playing and getting soaked, our attitudes totally flipped a lid. Ultimate Frisbee became this crazy slip and slide fest with all the coolest layouts a human could possibly do. We became almost completely unstoppable, almost. We played the toughest team today, the next few games should go better. The Unigames, for those of you who don’t know, is a time where 6-10 Universites from around New Zealand compete in a variety of games ranging from Basketball, Rugby, Running, Fencing, Ultimate Frisbee, Surfing, BMX, and a bunch more. In the end all the wins are tallied and the Uni with the most wins in each sport wins the competition. It goes from Monday night to Thursday night; which means we miss school for those 4 days. In most cases the teachers are understanding. It worked out well for me, my teachers were actually thrilled to get me out of class, I’ve been answering too many questions these past few weeks…. Anyway, I had some sweet catches today and some really good layouts. I scored two points for our team and assisted two more. The end score was 13-6 them. But you must understand, half of the team we played is going to the world finals for Frisbee, it’s actually amazing we even scored that much! It’s gonna continue raining the next few days, I think the coaches are trying to move the games inside, that means I won’t be able to do so much sliding. Oh well…

I’ve been to two professional rugby games since I’ve been here too. They’ve been really awesome. The game is really fast paced. The Auckland Blues won the first game and lost the second. The league that they are in is called the Super 14 between the tri nations of South Africa, Australia, and NZ. From here players are chosen to go onto the All Blacks, one of the top Rugby teams in the world. I played rugby with some of the locals and learned to run a little faster when I have some bigger dudes chasing me.

Last Friday was the Air Guitar Finals for NZ. They went pretty well. Garrett, the only American placed 5th in the whole country of NZ. He wore the American flag as a cape, he looked stellar. I’ll be doing a mockumentary on Air Guitar and will hopefully put it up on Youtube, but don’t count on it being anytime soon. I’m here in Rotarua until Friday and then leave Friday night to go to the South Island for two weeks. There I’ll be seeing gorgeous mountains and hiking a lot. I’ll also be doing the highest bungy jump in the world. I love you Mom and Dad and Jeremy, you can have my room and my car if it still works. (I love you too Waldo). It’s going to be an amazing trip. And Lord willing, I also be swimming with whales. No video though, it’s too heavy to carry all that equipment, but maybe so stellar pictures. I miss you all, and hope to hear from you via email or facebook. I try my hardest to get back to all, but since so Thanks again for all your prayer and support and helpful emails.
Tim

Facebook Album Links

2008-04-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

This is for all y'all who don't have facebook

Poor Knights Dive
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051648&l=a1736&id=34506567

Other NZ Photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048542&l=02d1c&id=34506567

I'll be doing a South Island tour in a week. I leave on Friday

This week I get to miss school and play ultimate frisbee at the Unigames. Monday thru Thursday. It's gonna be great. I'll post more later.

Poor Knights Video Part Uno

2008-04-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Ok Dudes

2008-04-05T22:38:00.000-07:00

Since you last heard from me I've learned a lot of new things. Good news isn't it? This past weekend was nuts! I was constantly bust from Thursday morning until Sunday night. Thursday morning I finally went spearfishing, it's too bad there wasn't any fish to shoot. NZ's fish population is lame, so far... I've been offered to go on a blue water trip to shot marlin sometime in the next month or so. I think I might go for it. I went diving with this kid Adam, I met him at the Bluefins meeting. He's a really cool dude who studies aquaculture at AUT, which means he's a fish specialist. I'll be diving with him more during the next few weeks.

Thursday night was a party and a half! New Zealand had it's Air Guitar Championships at the AUT campus bar. I joined the shredding of air and with 5 other Americans and 4 Kiwis. Garrett, a friend of mine, got 3rd place and is moving onto the finals! He might even have the chance to head over to AUS for another competition! I chose to shred to 3 Inches of Blood- The Goatriders Hoard. Pat, you'd be proud. That will be up on the tube eventually... I didn't win but I got a sweet hat!

After the competition ended, around 11pm, I began to drive on a 3 hour journey to a town for diving the next morning. I met at a hostel around 2am, got 4-5 hours of sleep and went diving Poor Knights Islands. I brought my underwater housing and took a bunch of video. I also learned how to use it more efficiently. Instead of swimming down with the housing, I drop it down on the float line and swim down to it. There I do the filming and can have more time under the water. It's hard work moving that around. I reached a personal best on Friday too! I hit about 1:45 minutes and reached around 60 feet, according to the SCUBA dudes I dove with. I also dove through a little cave. This I went on two dives that day. I'll give more details in the next post and include some pictures.

We (me and two other friends who dived on SCUBA) got back around 7pm. At 8pm I left for LOUD retreat. The retreat was for young adults 18-35 and everyone was from Life Church in Auckland, I'm sure you can google it. They have their young adult service on Wednesday nights. There's about 300-400 people who attend. 300-400 people my age!!!!!! It's fantastic. I'm meeting a lot of cool people, divers and longboarders and I'll also be joining the film team and editing some of there promo videos! Since it's a "mega church" there is 3-4 cameras. The video on Wednesday nights is run like a concert, lots of lights, smoke, cranked guitars, bass, and drums and a small push/mosh pit in front where people dance for Jesus! The atmosphere is really passionate and it's definitely a change from CBC. The retreat went really well. There was singing, 5 sermons, games, and food, like most retreats have. I met a lot of interesting people and made some good friendships. Around 20 people got saved. Boomshaka! I'll write more on it in the next post, but here are some pictures to keep you satisfied for now.

Easter weekend and I'm 21!

2008-03-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

Dudes and Dudetts!
This past weekend was awesome. Here in NZ they have Monday and Tuesday off for Easter as well, so I had a six day weekend! A bunch of my friends and I decided to head down to Taupo. It was about a 6 hour bus ride on a real cramped bus. Once we got there we stayed a night at a hostel camping outside on tarps and sleeping in hammocks. We had decided to hike to Tongariro Crossing over the weekend. We woke up at 6am and got another bus to Tongariro. Once there we began our hiking journey. The scenery was absolutely amazing. Also located on the trail is Mt. Ruapehu- AKA Mount DOOM!!!!!!!!! It's 2797 meters high. It's very high up. After hiking the trail (can take up to 4 days, we only did a part of it) to a camp site, we dropped most of our gear and headed over to hike up the mountain. It was around 1:30pm. There is no set path on the way up the still active, but dormant, volcano. You have to make your own way up. Holy Crap! It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, physically and mentally draining and all I wanted to do was go down and sleep. (we had been hiking for 5 hours earlier) On the way up you can hear people yell "ROCK!" and you best look up and figure out if the rock is on it's way down to hit you or you might not have a choice about going down. Once we reached the top we realized we were out of water and three of us split an orange and 2 granola bars. That was the best orange I had ever tasted, EVER! I had taken about 3-4 hours to get up Mt. Doom. Getting down also seemed to be an issue, unless you know how to ski. If you found the right path, you could ski down the sand and gravel and reach the bottom in about 30-45 minutes. A dangerous but extremely fun activity. I did get a few bumps and cuts. While we were on the mountain we made sure to throw something "precious" into the crater- we chose the orange peels... We slept well that night after we got back around 8pm.

The guys I was with decided that since there wasn't a lot of food left, that they were too tired to continue, so the next morning we got picked up. I was Easter morning. I read the Easter story out of John that morning as the sun rose. An amazing sunrise service. I was a little torn about leaving so soon, but we had accomplished hiking up Mt. Doom, so I wasn't too sad. We went back that morning and met up with some other friends in Taupo. We hit the beach and relaxed the rest of Easter Sunday. Later that night, we went to an Irish pub with an all you can eat buffet! We had potato salad, lamb, ham, chicken nuggets, rolls, beef stew, salad, and some sausages. A good end to a relaxing evening.

The day, Monday, began well. I had slept in a hammock the previous night and woke up to birds singing in my ears. They even tried to build a nest in my hair.... We were going white water rafting this afternoon with the three people we met up with. This adventure was absolutely stunning and awesome. We went on Kiwi River Safaris. We rafted the Tongariro river, a grade 3 rapid. (on a scale to 6) Not to easy, not too hard. The six of us were in one raft, talk about a fun experience. The whole time we kept our river guide, MP, laughing. And he had some good jokes and stories as well. He spends half his year in NZ and the other half guiding in the states. He has worked at the same river Mom, Dad, and Jeremy rafted when we were in CO. The rivers in NZ are very secluded compared to the states. We only saw the other rafts. The cliffs were stunning and covered in lush green trees. The rocks seemed to hang in mid air as we passed under them. (the tree roots kept them from falling on our heads) The trip was a total of 2 hours on the water, over 50 rapids, and a Subway sandwich to finish off the trip. All for only $99. Highly recommended if you ever find your way over to Taupo. This one rapid took us straight into the side of the cliff, on the bounce back I fell out of the raft and into the water. I was the only one that went swimming that day. I hurried back into the raft as we came up on some more rapids. The people in the boat said all they saw was me in the boat one second and then I had disappeared underneath the other second. I was a fantastic trip. I learned that in NZ there are schools were you learn how to be adventure sport guides, rafting, kayaking, hiking, climbing, and so on.

Tuesday morning 4 of us headed out to Huka Falls. The river that fed to falls was soo clear and deep at the beginning and had a huge current running through it. I would have been nice to dive if I knew I wasn't going to be swept into the falls. It was beautiful.

Our bus left at 3:30pm on Tuesday and we got back around 9pm. I worked on a paper that I had due on Thursday. Wednesday came about and I continued to work on the paper when I wasn't reading all the awesome birthday cards and emails. Thank you all soo much. My roommates made me supper that evening. It was awesome. Around 7 we (me and 40 of my friends) Decided to head out to do a little karaoke. I sang a lot of songs and my friends helped make the birthday a great time. The whole bar sang happy birthday to me. And this one girl brought me a homemade cupcake. (Had to make when you only had a convection oven in our apartments). I had a fantastic night. This weekend I hope to go diving at a spearing competition. We'll see if that works out. Thanks again for all the birthday wishes and cards. I made it to 21!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hiking for 4 days and dive trips

2008-03-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I'm having a good time still, for all of you who were worried my good time would fizzle out. I'll be hiking what Frodo and Sam hiked this weekend (Happy Easter too!) I'm taking "the precious" up to Mount Doom and I'll consider throwing it in the lava.... It's gonna be interesting, no hostels, just tarps, sleeping bags and the stars to sleep under. I'll tell more about it when I'm finished hiking (I leave Friday and return Tues.) HE HAS RISEN!

Ok, I met with the Bluefins on Wed night... Awesome experience. The Bluefins are a spearfishing club here in Auckland. I was able to meet some excellent divers who had some amazing stories to tell. I'll be joining them March 29th for a diving competition, Sweet-as! They are also planning on more dive trips soon. Ryan, I'll shoot that Kingfish soon! These guys got a lot of experience, from guys who have been diving for over 25 years, to newcomers like me (who have 2 years diving) We all learn a lot from each other.

I went to Goat Island, a national marine reserve. Supposidly tons of fish and huge fish too since it hasn't been fished since the 1970s. But, the visibility was terrible, I saw 4 fish... kind of a let down but I'll be returning soon to gather more video and pictures.

I'm playing Ultimate Frisbee in the UniGames- a four day event where the 4-5 colleges/universities play sports. But thats in April (you'll hear more later)

(picture) A concert I filmed at our school, this camera gets me everywhere!

(Picture) Some friends I hang out with a lot

Left to Right- Mark from Holland, Jakob from Germany, me, and Zach from NY

Thanks again to all who sent me cards and Mom and Dad- thanks for sending the calendar. Jeremy, have fun and don't do too much homework this weekend!

Busy with classes, fun weekends and filming

2008-03-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

Hey all, it's been a while since my last post. I've been pretty busy getting situated with classes and finding other classes to take. The two classes I came here for are only offered next semester, so I had to find different classes to take. I am taking a film class, although it's very similar to one I've taken at BSC. I'm also taking a TV writing class, a Maori culture class, and Radio Production. I won't have a radio show until mid April, and that's still not a guareentee. And access to editing labs is brutal, they only let certain classes get in, so I'm constantly trying to find people to talk to so I can show you all some videos or films I've made. I'll keep trying to find an edit lab somewhere.

This past weekend was great. We (about 80-100 international students) went to the Noho Marae weekend. It is an opportunity to learn about the Maori culture through songs, games, FOOD!, and other activities. It was an amazing weekend. We started on Friday with an international dinner, everyone brought a dish from their home country. I made homemade chicken noodle soup. We all ate food and and then we started to learn songs in the Maori language. There were a lot of countries represented this weekend, German, Holland, France, Austria, Mexico, Canada, USA, Sweden and Norway and the UK. We all went to a concert the school was holding later that night. The Black Seeds was the band. They are a fairly popular reggae/ska band and I was able to film them. Having an expensive camera can get you places (people thought I was part of a TV crew or filming a docu on them). I was soon pulled aside and I talked my way out of having my tape taken away. All I have to do is give them (the Program Committee or AuSM) a copy of my tape. Something about legal rights and copyright, but now my film will actually be used for some good instead of just sitting in my room! On Saturday we sang a lot, played this stick game which strengthen wrists for battle (the Maori are warriors) and also learned how to weave flowers and a ball with this seemingly unbreakable plant. And finally we learned the HAKA- type in All Blacks or Haka in youtube and you'll see an amazing and intimidating form of scaring the crap out of your enemies. We spent 3 hours learning the history of the Haka, the words, and movements to accompany them. It got all of us fired up and ready to go to battle. Slapping our thighs and chests until we began to bruise. It was so intense. There is supposed to be a leader who calls out the commands before everyone begins to scream.... I was that leader. I got it on film and once I can get to an edit lab you will see me lead 40 men in one of the most spectacular battle cries ever! And as I learned in the bar later that night with everyone else, I was the first international (in 8 years after 15 weekends) to hold this wooden weapon, normally made out of whale bone, during the Haka- a great honor. When we first began the girls sat in the front row, I guess we were able to put some fear into them, because they seemed to move back a little by the end. I assured all of my girl friends that I am not normally that angry or commanding. The girls did this dance and it was pretty awesome, I also taped that so you'll see it later. We all went to a restaurant/bar that night and there was a live band. We sang our hearts out (those of us who had voices left). The leaders (actual Maoris) bought me a drink, a great honor to lead these guys in the Haka. We all slept in the Marea, the meeting house that evening. And breakfast was at 11am. That after noon we had a closing ceremony where they left us with a song, and every country represented also sang a song from their country. In the Maori culture a song is the highest form of thanks and appreciation. "We sing, we laugh, we love, we live" (and go to battle). The US sang a compelation- American Woman, Kokomo, Sweet Caroline, and I've had the time of my Life......... and I owe it all to yooooooooooouuuuu. The other songs were also funny, mostly children songs and national anthems. The French taught us a shouting song where the international students yelled against the Maoris who taught us this weekend, a difficult task to beat them. We all recieved necklaces as gifts and left with a bit more knowledge about the Maori culture and New Zealand. It was a great weekend.

I'm eating well and am constantly meeting new people. The apartments are awesome, 500 people who love to hang out, talk, and party. Thank you all for your prayers, I know I'll be able to talk to some of you soon on Skype. Thursday and Friday I don't have class, so that gives me a nice 4 day weekend to travel, talk, and get some papers done. Don't worry I haven't forgotten about doing homework.

Jeremy, Mom, Dad and Waldo, I miss you. Looking forward to seeing you in a few months. Pat, Ryan, Karson, Lael, and all my WBIM folks we'll be talking soon.

Peace

North Island tour in 4 days

2008-02-28T22:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm here in a hostel called Bay Adventurer and I have two days before school starts. We left Auckland 2 days ago and have made it to the Bay of Islands. It's awesome. The hills are sooo stickin' green it's unreal. Then these jungles pop up out of nowhere and you think you're in Jurassic Park 4! Plenty of pictures and video have been taken, but I can't upload on the hostel computer. We're heading up to the tip tomorrow (Saturday). I think it's called Cape Anne. There should be some sweet-as (a New Zealand term for "cool") sights. I went explorering a bunch on beaches and got out to these rock islands. It looked like a movie, holes carved out by pounding waves and pirates raiding the closest harbor pub. (I made up the part about pirates....)

I went diving today, Ryan it's just like home, vis was real bad today and not too much fish... It was nice to finally be in the water though. It was my first dive, but definetly not my last. I also saw the oldest church in NZ. It's in Russell and has been well kept. I've been walking so much lately. My legs look like Lance Armstrongs. My apartment is located on the top of a hill (more like mountain) and everything else (supermarkets, stores for windowshopping, and restauraunts/pubs) are at the bottom. Jeremy tell mom and dad we should road trip around both islands when you guys come over, I think that's the best way to experience NZ. You meet people from all over the world at these hostels and most of them are nice places to stay. You also see everything NZ has to offer.

I got 1 minute left on the machine. Miss most of you guys and I'll continue writing to say how awesome it is here. Peace out!

Masters of Metal

2008-02-23T14:33:00.000-08:00

I went to this sick concert on Saturday Night. These guys were called the Masters of Metal. They did covers of Iron Maiden, Manowar, Guns and Roses, Bon Jovi, Judas Priest, Ozzy, and a ton more! They wore pink spandex outfits with mullet wigs- these guys were the epitome of cheesy and metal at the same time! It was one of the best shows that I went to, unfortunately Pat Lech wasn't there. (I miss you dude). It was like watching Spinal Tap in real life. Rock and Roll, ROck and Roll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-02-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

The American Embassy (Thinking of you Lael)

2008-02-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

(L) If you look hard you can see my food selection as a student, 5kg of rice, PB, Ramen, Soy Sauce, and Bread. (R) A few friends of mine in Rotorua.

(L) Dominos Pizza- They only have one size, it's about 10 inches and they call it a large. It's pretty small, but it has better flavor that in the states. Kinda funn that I ate here in the first few days. (Below) The Zorb, it's amazing to roll down that hill in a huge plastic ball.

(L) The 19 different types of sheep at the Agrodome. Picture 3 dogs running over the backs of those sheep. You'll see the video soon enough. (Below) A sheep and me

(L) The Tukatuka posts represent the ancestors and former cheifs of the Maori tribes. They show certain charateristics of the cheifs, and have sweet facial tatoos.

(R)Here at the airport I sat with about 20 girls, a sweet ratio to start off my trip!

New Zealand, it's been a few days

2008-02-21T12:47:00.000-08:00

Sunday- We had orientation for about 3 days in Rotorua. While in Rotorua we were able to go through sessions were we learned New Zealand customs and how to "have a better semester." The sessions were fun mainly because Eilis, our coordinator, is sooo excited about study abroad students and opportunities. We also went to the Agrodome. It was a show that showcased the 19 different types of sheep here in New Zealand. Sooo funny to see Kiwis and those at the show get soo excited about sheep. Lamb is cheaper than chicken here. The dogs were called in and they began to run across the sheep's backs. One of the coolest things I've ever seen. We were able to watch a sheep get sheared and listen to his jokes about which ones made a better roast.

Australearn then had the option to go Zorbing, Looshing, or take a walk through a Redwood forest. It was hard to pick which one, but I went with Zorbing. $44 NZ to roll down a hill in a plastic ball, funner that it sounds. I'll be sure to post the video once school starts. Another selling point was that you can only Zorb in NZ in Rotorua. Each Zorb costs $12,000 to make. A ridiculous amount of money for a plastic ball.

That evening we went to the Tamaki Village. Similar to Plymouth Plantation, but way cooler! It goes over Maori culture and their history. We were able to go through, and like the Indians at PP, ask questions about there history. All I could think of was Ryan reinacting and how awesome it would be to do the Haka- the warrior dance done before battle. It's truely intense to watch, especially when the warrior is waving a huge stick in front of you and his face is tatooed with traditional markings and then he stickes his tongue out at you to tell you he's going to eat you. (Similar to what Dave and I did in my facebook picture). Woo-ha! We also where able to eat a traditional meal called the hangi. It's food cooked in the ground for about 6 hours. Similar to what Jeremy, Dad, and I had in Peru. They cooked lamb, chicken, sweet potatoes, potatoes, fish, and carrots. We also had some salads, but they weren't cooked in the ground. I was a great cultural experience. We learned how to make a hangi, so when I get back, get ready to have a party!

On the way home from the Tamaki village we did Karaoke on the bus ride home. I busted out Ice, Ice baby and Twist and Shout by the Beatles. It was B-E-A-utiful. There was a hot tube at the KiwiPaka, where we stayed for those 3 days.

The terrain here is amazing. Great for four wheelers and dirt bikes. The hills just continue to roll and hills come out of other hills. Robby, you would have a great time here.

I'll be posting later on, so keep watching! And tell everyone you know to check it out, for those of you who aren't on facebook. Keep in touch