I
got some bad news; we had to move out of our awesome Villa. And, to save money,
for the next 8 days, all four of us will be staying in a tiny, shitty basement
studio. It’s damp and smelly and cramped, and my girlfriend and I are sleeping
on the floor, while the two star-crossed lovers, Duncan and Paul, are cuddling
in a queen-sized bed. Also Rob Meneguzzi has started riding with us and turned
the crew of four into a full car of 5.
Photo by Vanessa Chan
We’ve
been getting some bad weather this week. We haven’t really been riding as much
as we would have liked, but you can’t control the weather. You can only
complain about it. If you haven’t heard, there was a big earthquake in New
Zealand on the other side of the island that we’re on. So at least we weren’t
in the earthquake.
Photo by Vanessa Chan
Instead
of riding in the wind and rain today, we decided to go luging. We got on the
Skyline gondola that brings you to the top Queenstown for some friendly go-kart
racing.
Photo by Vanessa Chan
These motorless go-karts are powered by gravity and despite what you
may think, they are a hell of a good time. They’re sort of like bombing down an
obstacle course in a lowered shopping kart.
Photo by Vanessa Chan
We
raced and bumped our karts like giggling little girls for five laps, because…
once just wasn’t enough. One of my karts didn’t have working brakes and I ended
up crashing it twice. On one of my crashes I fully got ejected from the luge. Duncan
walked away with two wins. I walked away with some road rash and the rest of
the crew walked away with huge smiles.
Photo by Vanessa Chan
We
thought it was necessary during this trip to see some Kiwi birds. We went to
the bird sanctuary and got to see some real live
Kiwi birds.
Photo by Vanessa Chan
They were way bigger than any of us expected them to be. To me it
seems ironic that in a country where people are referred to as Kiwis, most
people from New Zealand have actually never seen their national bird. I guess
it’s because they’re nocturnal and endangered. Since they are endangered, we
weren’t aloud to take any photos of the birds, so here’s a photo of a poster,
I’m sure this is against some copyright laws. Sorry, haha.
Photo by ????
The
Kiwis were pretty cool, but the birds to see in New Zealand are the Keas. They
are mountain parrots and they’re bad-ass. They’re not like most parrots,
instead they have dark green feathers and they’re tough, little mischievous
creatures. They can fly in winds of over 100km/h and they’ll steal your food
from your hand or even tear of the rubber and chrome from vehicles. They were
super cool to see and we were able to go in the same cage as the Kea birds.
Photo by Vanessa Chan
We’re
crossing our fingers for better weather. See you next blog.