I had a dream that I woke up in an apartment in some city I didn’t recognize. I looked out the window and saw the night city skyline, which I also didn’t recognize. I called Molly and asked her where I was, and she didn’t know. Then some voluptuous girl walked in and told me we had a great night, and I worried I might have knocked her up.
It was a very real dream.
The day started out in Nelson. I rode a bus to Marsha(sp?). Then I did the first day of the hike. It was super beautiful. Here’s some pics:
That last picture is the boat I ended up staying on.
They may through the trees is a backpackers only campsite. There were some kayakers that sea kayaked to that bay, and then camped there for the night. I would really love to kayak to a destination and stay there for the night. Hopefully I can do that some weekend when I get back to San Francisco.
I listened to the waves tonight on the boat. It was very very beautiful.
I stayed in a backpacking boat tonight. It was great. The food was awesome, all home made. And we talked with the other backpackers for hours.
I also left my towel which was sad. I’ll probably buy a new one in Queenstown.
I flew into Nelson today. Here was the view out of the window. 
It’s the day before I start the Abel Tasman trek, and I flew in around noon, so I lolligaged most of the day. I checked into my hostel and then took a day hike to “the center of new Zealand”. Heres the center:
It was a giant needle looking thing. Sorry for the shitty photo, I didn’t want to look like I was creeping on that couple too hard.
The more interesting photo is the view on the way up:
And the friends I made in the way.
I tried to walk round downtown to explore, but most shops were closed due to “crate day”. Crate being that you buy you and your buddies a crate of beer, and get drunk and barbeque on the “Barbie”. Its not an offical holiday, but most shops closed early because of it.
Anyways, I have to wake up early tomorrow for my trek. I probably won’t post for a few days as I’ll be out backpacking, but I’ll be writing and post it once I’m back in civilization.
United lady: “Do you have a visa?”
Me: “Uh no?”
United lady: “You need a visa or a return flight”
Me: “I’m flying to Thailand, does that count?”
United lady: “That’ll work”
You can see I don’t know what I’m doing lol.
Today I’m flying from SFO to Auckland, NZ. Then to Nelson, NZ. The day after I’ll be travelling to the start of my 3 day backpacking trip on the Abel Telsman trek.
I’m going to try to update this blog as I travel. Most entries will be written from my phone. I’ll try and write how I feel at the exact moment, both the good and the bad. I’ll also try to include lots of pictures.
Here’s everything I’m bringing:
Here’s what it all fit into:
Some notes:
Yes I only have 4 pairs of underwear, 3 shirts, and 2 pants(one which is waterproof). I think the underwear is fine, despite what a certain someone thinks. It’s technical, antibacterial wicking fabric. I’ve worn it 2-3 days a time backpacking without problem and without smell. Time will tell though.
I do however realize 1 pair of hiking pants isn’t going to cut it for 63 days. I’ll probably pick up a pair of jeans in New Zealand tomorrow. Jeans are great because you don’t ever have to wash them if you’re not sweating too much, which makes them perfect for travelling.
As for how I’m feeling, I’m a bit nervous. Today was my last day at my job and I said goodbye to all my co-workers. They seemed sad I was leaving, which made me feel like I actually made a difference.
I’m kinda upset with how inefficient my New Zealand plans are. I keep flying back and forth for certain stuff. I’ll be here from the 1st through the 18th. It seems like a big waste of a time considering I’ll only be doing 2 overnight trips for a total of 50 miles. I did way more in 12 days in Iceland. But I have a lot of free days here and there, so maybe I can squeeze one more overnight trip in. Plus I’ll get to do a bunch of cool stuff like bungee jumping, mountain biking, and hang gliding.
Anyways, taking off, more to come later.
Welcome to my blog.
I’ve had a few conversations like this:
Her: “So what kind of music do you like?”
Me: “I listen to pretty much everything. My day-to-day is EDM/house/techno/trace though”
Her: *internally thinking I have “bad” music choice/I’m a raver*
I feel like this genre of music gets a bad rap. So let me try to clear it up a bit.
I was walking down Manhattan NY yesterday, and it was pouring rain. But I had my EDM music, and I was doing just great. I think the final straw that made me want to write this post was I came to a relationzation that I always knew, but didn’t really think about:
EDM keeps me from depression.
People listen to music for a lot of reasons; they want to feel a certain way, it reminds them of something, what have you.
But for me, it’s more of a way to stave off negative thoughts that often go through one’s head. Now I’m not saying I’m depressed; I think everyone has negative thoughts, and we all find different ways to cope/migtigate them. Mine is this music.
Take this song as an example:
This is one of my favorites. I actually played this on the radio when I was a intern DJ for a short stint at KUCI(UCI’s radio show). I had someone from Newport Beach call in and ask me what the song was because they liked it so much! So it’s not just me that feels this way about this music.
This song basically is upbeat, happy, cheerful. You can’t listen to it with a frown on your face; now it’s a little different than my regular house/EDM/techo music because it has lyrics, but it’s still pretty indicative of the stuff I listen to.
Here’s another example, the song I was listening to in Manhattan when I decided to write this blog post:
It starts out slow, but it gets strong and eventually has a very “upbeat feel to it”.
It just brings happiness.
“Great Kevin; but lots of songs are upbeat. Why not pick someone else like like T-swizzle, which has really upbeat stuff”
Great question.
The other big reason I listen to this type of music:
It has no lyrics.
You can put on an EDM playlist for 45 minutes and not hear one word. It’s great. And it’s important for me, because as a software engineer I listen to a LOT of music at work. Like I typically go through 5-6 hours of music a day. Now if I have someone talking in my ear that whole time It’d be very distracting (and I’m already easily distracted enough).
There are some other good things about EDM/techo/house.
It’s typically a pretty fast, consistent BPM. And that makes it *perfect* for running, another one of my hobbies.
So I can just put on an playlist of EDM songs that I’ve never heard, and I can actually sometimes keep pace of my running with it! How cool is that??(Yes, I know a lot of people say that’s bad form; that’s for another discussion).
Another note on EDM while running, depending not he sub-genre you’re listening to, you can get that extra “push” you need to get over something when the “drop” happens or the buildup happens. Which is cool.
Lastly, this type of music is pretty repetitive. Which is perfect! Because it just fades into the background, almost as white noise, allowing you to focus on what you’re doing: wether that’s running, working on something, or just sitting around in your room.
So to recap, here’s why I like the music:
1) It’s upbeat and happy
2) It’s not distracting because it has no words
3) There’s basically an endless supply of it
4) It’s perfect for keeping pace and pushing you when running
5) You can easily zone-out to it.
I hope that’s enlighten you a bit to the genre and why I tend to listen to it pretty much every single day.
All of this text is copied verbatim from when I wrote it on my phone
I saw a nice ass today. And I got a bit turned on. for a second I didn’t know what the feeling was it had been so long!
63.51.470 N, -19.13.640 w
I saw a couple holding hands. Cute.
I saw a lone woman backpacker eating on an outlook point by herself. She was cute. How many of us must be alone? In another life we could have been together. It’s just unfair people can’t find someone when people that would love them are everywhere. We’re just looking in the wrong places.
Burrito bowl is bad, Masa is amazing!
I was super worried all day about not being able to do the river crossing barefoot, or having to sacrifice my running shoes. Last time I put running shoes underwater they never stopped smelling like mold. Like, ever.
Luckly, the lady running the hut had 2 pair of flip flops that I could use. She said just throw some socks OVER(yes you read that right) them and they’ll turn into usable river crossing apparatus(RCA). I feel a lot more confident about it now. Though I’m scared how cold the river will be haha.
I’m a little worried now that I won’t be able to do the half marathon in a state I would like. The bottom of my feet seem to be forming what o think are blisters, but I can’t see anything. They might be hidden beneath the calluses.
Today I saw some BLUE SKY. It means I truly AM on planet earth and not some foreign world(like my videos suggest).
Some thoughts:
I feel like this vacation is me just scripting responsibly. Remember firewtch? The guy just ran away from his dementia-ridden wife to hide in the wilderness. At the end of the day, he was just trying to avoid his problems and forget about the situation. I feel like I’m doing that too.
I haven’t really been pursing jobs/studying as much as I want.
I have discussed with Holly how she thinks things are going and what I and her want to do from here.
I haven’t set up the improv stuff, and just dropped all the responsibility on Cassie with, “sorry, I’m in iceland, forgot to tell you, figure this out! Bye!”.
But, on the other hand, maybe I just have a lot of stuff going on, and sometimes you just need to get away. Though I could have left things in a better state when I left.
Also, “I’m sorry ms. Jackson, I am for realllll. Never meant to make your daughter cry, I apologize a thousand times”. With the amount of radio airplay outkast had gotten for that song, I’m sure he’s apologized a thousand(and probably a million) times.
It’s like 9:10 pm and the sun still hasn’t set yet. Crazy.
All the text was copied verbatim from my phone from when I wrote it
Never gonna give you up played on the bus to laguravanran. Everything is gonna be okay now that Rick’s here
This text was copied verbatim from my phone as I wrote it
Went ice climbing. Dope dope dope!!! We also did a surprise sort of lowering into a crevasse, and then climbed out of it. I met a cool couple from Boston. And another couple from Florida who took some sick pics of me climbing and will email them to me.
The day ended with me camping in the pouring rain. It rained all night, and when I packed up the tent the next day, I swear it was 3 pounds heavier because it was soaked in rain.
The paranoia for the day b4 was I wouldn’t be able to find sunglasses(cause I left mine). But I did find some! For $60 x.x
Here’s some pics of the ice climbing and the crevasse:
This text was copied verbatim from my phone
If you can stand up in your tent, your doing camping wrong
Today started out with me finding out the airplane people broke my tripod. It’s okay, it wasn’t too expensive. And it was my mistake for keeping it on the outside of my backpack.
The other negatives were i didn’t bring sunglasses so I had to buy a pair for $60. And the icetours were full when I got there, so I couldn’t go on a boat 🙁
The second one seemed to be a blessing though, as I took the most dope-ass picture of me on an iceberg in the sea, right as a wave came crashing over me. I look like the little mermaid.
Thought: if you’re funny and nobodys around to see it, are you still being funny?
Another mistake: my chargers don’t work here. They have European plugs. I knew this, it just didn’t cross my mind. Not that I can charge anything anyways till I get to Reykjavik.
Also the food here is supposed expensive. I got a panini and a “bud light” beer for $20. Crazy!
I’m exhausted. I think I accomplished enough today. And tomorrow is a new day. I’ll do a bit more hiking on the trails around the campsite and then call it quits.
I’m excited for the reyakvik part and beyond of the trip. I’ll have the safety + freedom of the car, and that means I can charge things, see stuff when I want, and eat when I want. Tomorrows iceclombin should be fun too. Fuck the naysayers(I’m looking at you tom and random guy on the bus).
The waterfalls were a bit underwhelming(although the first one was cool, going behind it was awesome!).
Oh and the geothermal powerplant???? That shit is NUTS. That whole area is nuts. Literally steam coming out of the ground just randomly all over the place.
They dig like 100 meters down, use the steam to power turbines. Then they use the water a ton of diff ways. To heat up stuff(I forgot), then it’s piped 30 miles to Reykjavik to be used as warm water(only loses 1 degree, even in snow). Then finally the leftover drain water is used to heat the streets. That’s awesome!
I created this blog to keep track of things I think people might want to read, or would be interesting to them. Mostly it’ll probably have posts about things I saw/did when I traveled, but it’ll also have posts every so often about general topics.
I’m going to go traveling December And January, so I thought it’d also be nice to have somewhere to write regular updates about my travels. They’ll be posted to here.
Enjoy!