NEW ZEALAND

So we rent a small campervan for 22 days. It ended up being about $500 US dollars a piece. The van has a mattress, cooler, propane stove and tons of pots to cook with. This will save us money in the long run. I spent New Years Eve sleeping the back of the van with some sort of flu. It was probably the bird flu being around all those damn Asians! just kidding. I took lots of medicine and took it easy and I feel much better but I was asleep by 10pm. The interesting thing is it doesn't get dark here until 10 at night! I think it is called Land of the Midnight Sun or something like that. We drove all the way down to the ferry that goes to Stewart Island and hiked around this old gunpoint on a hill that was used as a lookout during one of the wars. The vegetation here is almost more remarkable than Costa Rica and we havent even made it to the WEST COAST of the SOUTH ISLAND yet. We are in Queenstown now. The drive up the mountains to get here was absolutely beautiful. I am thinking about going skydiving tomorrow or the next day but havent made up my mind yet. Hopefully I will be able to get some pics up here in the next day or two...

Change of plans...

Our three night stay in King's Cross in Sydney got double booked so we were out of a place to stay. We met up with Andy (www.asmithlife.blogspot.com) and had a few beers at the bars the day before New Years Eve. The original plan was to stay through the holiday but I think John and I were ready to leave anyway. Thanks to Noah and Eric from Wrightsville Beach for letting us sleep on their hotel floor! We would have been on the streets if it wasnt for you guys. I'm glad we met up it was an amazing experience. Everything was so overpriced it was ridiculous. I wish I had time to make it to the Outback. That is where I really wanted to go. Oh well, maybe next time. We called Air New Zealand and caught the next plane to Christchurch and left New Years Eve Day...

Sydney, Australia

After 22 hours in a plane and over a half a day of layovers we are in Australia. Sydney seems to be very skateboard friendly and clean. I have seen over 20 people skating already and we have only been here half a day. The city is huge and so are the buildings. We went to a wildlife exhibit and saw koalas and kangaroos. It was interesting. On the way back to our hostel we saw a bunch of bats flying around the city. Big bats! By far the biggest I have ever seen in the wild. We plan on staying in Sydney until after New Years and then it is on to NEW ZEALAND.

Well,

I am leaving for Australia in 10 minutes. Don't really know what to expect. I know I am not looking forward to the 2-day flight. Not really sure how the time difference works...

If anyone needs to contact me...

This is the way to do it...

jasonrockwellcox@gmail.com

Cartago and Alajuela

From the busy streets of Cartago to the sketchy streets of Alajuela. This is where we spent the last day. By this time I haven't showered in 4 days and was completely out of clean clothes. Sam, Chris and I only stayed in one place that had hot water the entire week in Costa Rica.

Irazu and the rainbow

When we finally got to Vulcan Irazu it was raining. It was so cloudy and rainy you couldn't see in the crater at all. But on the way back down the mountain we saw an unforgetable rainbow.

Tamarindo

These next 24 hours or so were the worst of the trip. Even though the pictures of Tamarindo look nice, it's not. It was the worst spot we travelled. Everywhere you walked people were trying to sell you ice,crack,crank,coke,speed,weed...you name it. We even got offered weapons, which is kind of interesting. We woke up at 7am to 25 Costa Ricans on our roof with hammers doing construction. Sam went outside to find out that someone tried to steal our car and broke the lock of the drivers door. They didnt steal it and we had to pay an extra $20 at the end of the trip. The next idea was to go to the Barra Honda National Park. It is a bat cave with various animals like an anteater and other weird creatures. The guide wasn't working that day and we were'nt able to go inside the caves. So we raced to Palo Verde. Palo Verde is another national park with crocodiles. We payed $6 to walk around on the trails but the mosquitos were just too bad. We basically wasted a whole tank of gas and one day.

Volcano and Lake Arenal

This place was amazing. We heard Volcano Arenal rumbling when we were hiking toward it. Check out these blueberries growing at the base of the volcano. On the way out of town we spotted a "monkey/badger" in the wild.

Hotel Tilawa and La Fortuna

On the way to La Fortuna we stumbled upon the Hotel Tilawa skatepark. It had lights and everything. I skated it for a minute and lost half the skin on my elbow on the big bowl. La Fortuna is a small town that overlooks Volcano Arenal. This is one of my favorite cities. Out of all the places we went in Costa Rica the houses surrounding Lake Arenal had the best view in the country, in my opinion. This town also had a lot of stray dogs. We met this dog and named it Taco. Taco followed us around everywhere we went. Bars, restaurants, and even our hotel room. Taco ended up sleeping on our floor overnight and eating some of our free breakfast. Adios Taco!

MonteVerde

Since we were at the rodeo so late we had trouble finding lodging on MonteVerde. We checked in our hotel around 11:30pm and went to investigate this festival they were having down the street. I payed some guy cooking in front of a disco club $1 (500 colones) for some kind of meat on a stick. I'm still not sure what it was. MonteVerde is a cloudforest. The clouds were moving so fast they knocked Chris' hat off. It is long drive up this mountain and I don't recommend driving up this without 4 wheel drive. On the way down the mountain there were cows and horses wandering the dirt roads.