Nicks Big Adventure

The north island has been a great place me to play and meet people. It is now time for me to start a new journey in the south island of New Zealand. I spent a week in Auckland with Gabb, biking seeing friends from kiwiburn and I even got to see a live rugby league game. I had a great time but it was time for me to step up to the next challenge. I headed south on Monday afternoon and arrived in Wellington on Tuesday afternoon. Wellington is a hip little town that has a vibrant art scene. On the other hand the weather is terriable. I looked around town on Wednesday and went to the national museum and walked around the parliament buildings. Thursday I boarded a ferry to the south island in bad weather. The rolling seas did not bother me. Open ocean travel was rough but once the sea gave to fjords the going was quite smooth. We got to Picton just after noon and I was off to Christchurch. The east coast of the south island is quite plain. The southern alps on the west coast block lots of moisture from reaching to east side of the range. The drive was uneventful and I made it one hour south of Christchurch by night fall. Another day of driving and the scenery changed drastically. My destination was Queenstown, but in order to do that I had to drive into the mountains and around large lakes. It was tough to drive and look so I drove slowly and took lots of pictures. Queenstown is a totally cool place, but very expensive. It remindes me of Breckenridge, CO with a lake in downtown. I came to town to start my adventure here in the south and to play in yet another Disc golf tourney. Saturday's 2 rounds were fun and laid-back with lots of local and traveling players. Sunday's rounds were to be played in a place called paradise and we tee off from The Garden of Eden. This was a huge reason that I am here now. An hour out of town and down a gravel road past a lake is the Paradise Trust. It is a sort of private/public national park land. Trust me it is beautiful. I was to meet some of the boys at a pub in the last town before the place. I did not see a pub so I went on not knowing that they were waiting for me for some time. My apologies to them. Instead I decided to find the place on my own before the sun went down. I checked in at the office and was assigned the garden Velt cabin. It had an old coal stove range. I cut wood, split logs, started afire and got water on to boil. The cozy one room cabin had a large front deck and small covered back porch. Inside was a shower, kitchen and two beds. I shared the cabin that night with Dan from canada. So once the cabin was warm and cozy some of the guys showed up to see if I had made it safely and to invite me down to the garden of eden cabin or disc golf HQ. it started to rain so I grabbed my jacket and went for a long walk in the woods. The evening was filled with new stories and lots of laughter. Infortunatly it did not stop raining for the whole day. Dan decided to let his doubles partner down and stay in from the rain. I did no such thing. I bundled up as much as I could with my rain jacket and gum boots. 1.5 hours in and I was soaked. But I was not the only one and we all just played through the rain and had a blast. After a lunch break the weather lifted and I could begin to see that we were surrounded by mountains and a glacier was just up the valley. It was an amazing cold wet day but it was a lot of fun. The evening was a night around the campfire with stories and instruments for people to play with. That night I built a fire back at my cabin to heat water for a shower and for water bottles to keep my feet warm through the night. It was a treat to be out there. The next morning greeted me with a clear sky and sunshine. I packed up my stuff that I had hung to dry and cleaned up the little place. I found out that the place has a mouse that lives in the cabin. He/she gnawed at my chilly bin and ate a cany bar that I had in a wrapper. I went over to the GoE cabin to say my farewells and was treated to a DG clinic with the best player in NZ, complete with slow motion drive analysis. I thanked Sinom for his time and advice. I also thanked James for putting on a great tourney. I then did one more walk around to take pictures and feel the fresh air again. I am back in Queenstown, but it is expensive so I am thinking of starting a trip to Stewart Island. I have some research to do around here and figure out my next move but I think Stewart island will be the place to be. Things are still good and I miss those I care the most about. All the others, eh, ok I miss y'all too. Much love and happiness! Pura Vida