something i wrote about eventually coming home. i'm back now

Whilst on mt ollivier looking at mt cook:

tendrils of cloud grip at the mountaintop like the claws of a dragon clutching at it's prey, but the prey is ever strong, the mountain refusing to relinquish it's place in the landscape, and the cloud dissipates.  The day grows old and the shadows lengthen, the sky a summer blue, slowly fading to gold and then to pink, Mt. Cook lighting up this spectacular hue before the long shadows claim the mountain aswell.  The sky turns a gentle mauve, before all the colours mix together to gray.  Even as the sun leaves the sky and the light with it, the mountains still make for a panorama worth seeing.  It's 10:30 now and there's still light in the heavens outside Muellers hut, surrounded by snow at 1810 meters.  Could this be the most beautiful place I have ever been?  I can see my first star and the young adventurers in the hut slowly succumbing to the night, but still laughing and talking.  It reminds me of what is truly the most beautiful place in the world, where I feel a constant warmth in my heart and everything is beautiful in my eyes.  It is with God and with friends and wherever there is love, ever strong, greater than the mountains, bigger than the sky...

NZ-milford, mt cook, and the boat back north

.::| NYE |::.

Wow.  I kind of haven't written for a while, even though I just uploaded all previous NZ posts just then.  What I've been looking at after Wellington kinda takes all those other photos and stuff which are awesome and make them look a lot less awesome.  Like Akaroa and Christchurch, which are nice and green and beachy, and then down to Dunedin and Otago peninsula which are more spectacular where we stayed in a castle.  Well.  The stables of the castle over christmas cos there was no room at the inn...And then we kind of had a car crash in the rental and the Friendee was gone, leaving us stuck in a castle, an alright place to be stuck.  While stuck, we did manage to get into Dunedin and visit the Cadbury factory.  Chocolate overload.Then got another rental and travelled to Milford Sound, which is the most spectacular place I've ever been and when the LOTR guys came along to see where there were good spots to film they were just left there with their jaws hanging open and couldn't really film there cos everybody would just keep on getting distracted by the awesomeness.  Not really. That's what would have happened.  New Years Eve now.  Sorry I can't upload the pictures of Fiordland.  They're still on my camera.  Anyway... dumdeedeedumdeedumdeedee. See ye. 

MISSION: CATCH UP ON BLOG

TIME: 1000 HRS NZT (20/12/09)
SOUNDTRACK: ‘FORWARD MOTION’ by THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH
LOCATION: WELLINGTON

So. After Auckland, we went through EPIC countryside down to a place called Rotorua and a farmstay in even more EPIC-dom. Just check the view out my window:

No wonder they filmed Lord Of The Rings here.

SLEEP.



































Next morning, went for a walk on a kinda cool hill. Then saw a Maori cultural demonstration in Rotorua and also EPIC bubbling mud and the GEYSER OF EPICALITY.

SLEEP

Next morning climbed an even more EPIC hill, but then along comes this:



















This is Ultra-Fat-Massive-Tank-Awesome-Epic Mount Unpronounceable Nguaruhoe. An active volcano. Last eruption 1975, but it was due for another one. It’s a tough climb, like 38° incline and trust me, it’s steep. The side of the mountain is all volcanic ash and pebbles, but you had to be extra careful because there were also big rocks, and if you accidentally got them rolling they’d tear down the flat 600m drop at a speed of fast with the potential to kill someone. One man broke his leg and got airlifted out. The ash is annoying cos it’s all slidy.

Halfway up the mountain, the clouds came in, but the interesting thing was that we were above them. Before the clouds closed, before we reached the summit, I looked down and there was a scene perfect for a LOTR battle, and over the hill, a crystal lake, deep blue on top of a mountain.

At the summit was the biggest surprise yet. Snow. Epic. Also, there was smoke coming from a vent in the side of the mountain. Scary. Nice view.



We went back down and saw a man epically sliding the whole way down the volcano on his pants. Anyway. Having an awesome time and going to the south island tomorrow, which should be wicked. Miss you all. Morley.

Oh no.  Not yet.  Also these trees here are californian redwoods, but in NZ.  Spectacular trees.   Actually this was probably more epic than the volcano.

MISSION: AKL-SLEEP

MISSION STATUS: FAILED

TIME: 1110 HRS NZT (17/12/09)
SOUNDTRACK: ENDLESS TIM FINN ON YHA STEREO. YOU’D THINK HE WAS A KIWI OR SOMETHING…
LOCATION: AUCKLAND

MISSION: AKL-CBD

TIME: 1400 HRS NZT (16/12/09)
SOUNDTRACK: ‘TRAFFIC AND PEOPLE'
LOCATION: AUCKLAND

Auckland’s CBD is really tiny so not too much to explore there, but go up queen street far enough and it gets really steep and asian. Past that, there is an amazingly huge park with geese and 86 hectares and an awesome museum and awesome forests 10 mins from CBD with a nice abandoned railway station and nice hills and then left that park and found Auckland Uni and awesome grounds almost nicer than the park with amazing old buildings and then found another park which linked to the uni and had an awesome fountain and awesomer trees. Then saw a poster advertising Switchfoot, Underoath, Falling Up, Family Force 5, Hillsong United and Leeland all in the same festival. Sweet As Bro!

MISSION: QF 025 737-AKL

TIME: 1100 HRS NZT (16/12/09)
SOUNDTRACK: ‘FLY WITH ME’ by JONAS BROTHERS
LOCATION: AIR












GOON 1: “hmm. Looks like an aeroplane. Sounds like an aeroplane. Tastes like an aeroplane. Very nice.”


GOON 2: “ooh, yes. I’ve had it in the oven all night”


GOON 3: “can I have a slice?”


“mmmmm…”


anyway. Thanks spike milligan. ‘Mao’s Last Dancer’ was a pretty good film, even if the cabin crew kept trying to give me breakfast while I was watching… sorry. I’m excited. I don’t get to fly very much.

MISSION: QF NZ 025

TIME TO DEPARTURE: 0300 HRS EST
TIME: 0300 HRS EST (16/12/09)
SOUNDTRACK: ‘ALWAYS’ from ‘HELLO HURRICANE’ by SWITCHFOOT
LOCATION: YANKEE FLAT ROAD - WARRENHEIP

Wocka! Wocka! Wocka! Sleepyboo grnnmmrrzz. Unreal. I’m going to NZ…

jgnfkf

Sorry I didn't blog earlier, but i've got an excuse for every day if you want...ok...monday orientation day for peter and then bookswap and band until 7:30  got home ate dinner went to bed, pooped...tuesday went to activity day, came home, went on internet and in the one minute of time i was allocated i was able to read your email, and got kicked off...wednesday my grandparents got here and i was making christmas cards for everyone else...thursday speech night and last day of skule...friday grandparents here and strict parents and mowing the grass at church and then work christmas party...saturday parents were being really tough on computers because they wanted me to spend more time with grandparents, one of whom was at the time on a lawnmower...

cool.

a picture, a poem, a song.

How do I show how I feel?
The words from my mouth fail me,
any picture I draw isn't right,
my song is off key,
the right words feel wrong.
How do I show how I feel?

I don't.  I am how I feel,
and if you have vision you'll see,
that the song is my life,
the words are my heart,
the picture is me.

he has vision, he sees me.

BE NICE TO YOUR KNIVES

In Knife and Razor-Land there are evil vegetables and bad herbs and nasty papers with black dotted lines on them and hairy hairs. They deserve to be cut. Knives like cutting herbs and veggies and fruit and hairy hairs and paper with black dotted lines on it, because they’re bad, bad things in Knife and Razor-Land and steal all the happiness out of the land. Then there are the good guys. All humans are automatically good guys. Children’s pets are good guys. Without exception, all knives and razors love these things and would hate to cut them. Knife and Razor-Land is real. Knives and razors really do hate cutting your skin, drawing your blood, or anybody else’s blood for that matter. Think of Mack the Knife, and Gilette the Razor. Think of them and don’t abuse them. They love you and they’d hate to cut you. You are the good guy. Don’t make them do anything they don’t want to do. Love your knives, be good to them, and let them chop veggies and hairy hairs…

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ...

I need to laugh more.

Be Nice To Small Insects (except for flies)

I don't write very much, but I like doing artsy stuff so I should probably put this stuff on my blog more because I like it and it's fun and awesome.  Yeah.  And maybe music aswell.  My favourite song for this week is Welcome, done by John Coltrane.

Melons

That's me!  My name is now Melons and I'm back from a week in the bush, excited to be here but not excited about maths homework.  Okey dokey. See you soon...

Love from Melons