Working Nomad

The picture right is of New Brighton beach where they had a rather spectacular kite show today. The surf kicked ass as well.

Rusty and I will continue onwards after the oil issue seems to have stabilised now and she appears to be in OK health for a 21 year old car.

I am hanging around Christchurch until the 1st Feb and then I am heading to Lake Tekapo / Mt Cook for a day or so before hitting Queenstown at the weekend.

Three of us are planning to do the Kepler Track next week which should be cool.

Will post an Internet earnings and budget update for January later in the week.

I am back in Christchurch now after an exciting three days in the alpine village of Arthur’s Pass and surrounding peaks. Rusty (pictured rght) just about made the 1000m climb up to the village but not without spilling some oil.

I am taking her to the garage tomorrow to see how serious the oil leak problem is. Fingers crossed as I am growing quite attached to the old thing.

A friend and I did the Avalanche Peak climb with the intention of dropping down into a valley to the remote Crow Hut for the night. Anyway the weather got quite bad at the summit meaning we had to turn back, with full overnight backpacks to the village which was frustrating but the sensible thing to do.

My legs are shot to bits at the moment as the 9 hour hike was the first real exercise I have done for a while!

Once Rusty is fixed and I have caught a few waves at New Brighton we will be off to the South, probably Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook for more mountain action.

January is looking like my best month for web income. The hard work I put in while in KL and Singapore has paid off.

The World Buskers Festival has been excellent. One minor annoyance is that everything is suppose to be free and donations are appreciated. The reality is that donations are compulsory on entry and start at $5! I don’t have a problem paying to see live acts but donations should not be compulsory!

Anyway Rusty and I are off to Arthur’s Pass this afternoon. I have finally purchased all the gear I need for hiking and camping and will be setting off with a friend tomorrow for the two day ‘Goat Pass Walk’ which should be fun.

I have spent so much this month that I don’t want to think about it so a few days in the wilderness will be good for my physical and financial health. Catch up later.

There is a new woman in my life. The first car I saw I bought. There is no messing around with me these days. I used to be indecisive but now I’m not too sure.

Anyway it is a 1985 Ford Laser ‘Ghia’, rusty red with the word ’slut’ keyed onto the door and the word ‘hoe’ on the bonnet.

Apparently the teenage daughter of the owner fell out with some of the local guys. Nevertheless it was cheap at GBP 280.00 and despite the minor oil leak and obscenities in the paint work it seems to go fine.

I will be putting a picture up of Rusty soon. We are off together to Arthur’s Pass National Park in a couple of days (hopefully giving a lift to a couple of other backpackers). I had a car die on me the last time I was in Arthur’s Pass so fingers crossed for Rusty.

The World Buskers Festival is in town currently and is providing some very good entertainment. The funniest thing is this guy in a suit driving around town sitting on a motorised toilet giving away free toilet paper.

They are all a bit crazy down here in the South Pacific.

Well I finally made it to Christchurch, New Zealand after an exhausting journey of three budget airlines and three countries over three days. My first thought; it’s is nice to be back in a world that does not require air-conditioning.

I decided to take the budget route from Asia to New Zealand using Tiger Airways from Singapore to Darwin (where I had a very pleasent day strolling around despite the humidity!) then Virgin Blue from Darwin to Brisbane (where I spend the entire day in the air-conditioned surrounds of the airport rather than the 38 degree temperature outside) and Pacific Blue to Christchurch.

I got the usual barricking of questions from immigration. Australia were particularly perplexed that I should be carrying a laptop and the New Zealand chap was concerned that I actually knew someone in the country. Not really sure why that was but they both stamped me through anyway.

I arrived at the hostel at 1am that I had booked on the Internet to find it was all shut up and no one was waiting for me despite their promise. Luckily a place was open down the road and I met this guy and we went straight out for beers until 3am. Went back to the original hostel today to be told my booking was for the 18th Feb!

I am in NZ (third time) to experience the great outdoors and to see the bits I never saw last time. As soon as I get some wheels I am off to the Christchurch suburb of New Brighton to the beach where I learnt to surf and hopefully meet up with the surf shop owners who were so friendly and helpful three years ago.

I will then be heading for the mountains and plan to do some of the so-called Great Walks of NZ including the Routeburn and Kepler Tracks which should be cool.

As far as work goes New Zealand will be a holiday. I have really been going for it the last two weeks in Southeast Asia and feel satisfied that the sites can look after themselves while I am here. Income is still ticking along well and January is looking like being another record month.