Can you concieve of cognition or of life lacking language? To live less your lexicon and loss of elucidation?

Woefully wanting for words to narrate the nervous nuances of your nuerons’ manipulations of your mind.  The embattled balance of your emotions emanating in your exclamations and proclamations of passions, of yearnings, of you.

What magnificent mastery of majesty, what wonder of worlds, to delight in discussion and discourse as amply as you avow to afford.

________________________________________

Wrote this at a really nice lookout point in the Marlborough Sounds while trying to contemplate of how to think without having language, it’s pretty difficult!

Some pictures from the South Island! This is from the ferry across to when I got to Queenstown.

Click me for the facebook link!

Click me for the non-facebook link to open at work locations with filters *coughGDcough*

Well I guess it’s been a while since I last updated this thing with some news (as some of you like to remind me) so here we go!

I’ve been on the self-proclaimed “Mike’s Fantasmagorical New Zealand Road Trip of Epic Proportions” (too over the top?) for 37 days now! For the last 5 weeks I’ve been driving all over the North and South Island of NZ trekking, picking up hitch hikers, hitch hiking myself, making new friends, not showering and finding strange and novel places to get naked.

“Pardon me?!?” you might be asking, “Did you say NOT showering??” To which I will happily answer, yes that’s right my friends, not showering.  For almost the entire five weeks.  I say almost because though I went the first 28 days straight with no shower, I did have a five day volunteer/work/rest-from-hiking-to-let-feet-heal last week in a hostel where I did indeed shower in the socially accepted conventional way.

But for the first 672 hours that I lived out of my car, tent and the odd back-country hiking hut, the many different waters of NZ have been my shower!  I’ve let the giant ocean waves on both sides of this magnificent island thoroughly rinse me, I’ve scrubbed my foul odours away and rubbed new ones in while wallowing in the sulphur hot pools of the Copland track, splashed wildly about in the Arthur’s Pass and Rees-Dart glacial rivers, swam in the frigid streams of the Tongariro and Kepler trails and soaked myself in a plethora of crystal-clear fresh water lakes found just about everywhere.  What better way to stay clean than these methods I ask of you? Exactly!

I suppose your next question would be, “Now Mike, what is this hitch hiking you speak of? Are you really just going around picking up backpackers in your car and dumping their mysteriously dead bodies over the cliff edges between the towns of Queenstown and Glenorchy?”  I must laugh at this question because everyone knows the cliffs between Queenstown and Glenorchy aren’t nearly large or secluded enough for that at all!  Nay friends, hitch hiking is merely a great way to get around NZ.  I’ve had some wonderful company on my drives from hitch hikers who’ve shared stories and advice from their travels and have been equally grateful to share with those that have provided me with lifts after long treks.  It’s been a great way to meet people and make friends!

“What of all these friend-makings you speak of my boy? What say you on that?” I hear you asking.  On this I  have much to say!  This travelling around stuff has given me so many opportunities to consistently meet new and interesting people from all over the world.  Some for brief moments and others I’ve been privilaged to spend more time with and get to know.  There was the physics major/firefighter from northern Ontario who would refuse to talk of time, the cosmos and other such topics for fear of panic attacks, but was a great hiking friend for four days and we became quite close, the two Germans who I got drunk with in the hot pools, saw our first glow worms together and partied with a few days later in Queenstown, the Belgium and French couple who I shared my food with as they had none and provided a ride to after a trek and then spent evening with them and their friends till the early hours of the morning drinking and singing the night away, the Israeli who was just out of the army as an interrogator, the continuously talking American that was really cool and nice but was difficult to get a word in with, the 75 year-old dart-playing, horse race betting, hunter who had never been outside of NZ and why should he when he has a country like this, the exchange student who told the story of how at the end of her exchange while she was giving a speech to the auditorium filled with her classmates about her experiences, a few of her Maori peers she had become close with stood up and performed the powerfully emotional Ka Mate tribal dance bringing many to tears and a first seen at that school for such an occasion and, and oh my comrades such a myriad of other such unique encounters.  Some I have contact info of for future travels, others just the memories, but memories that will remain with me, making me laugh, chuckle and grin with the thoughts of them.

“And of the hiking? That seems to be all you’re doing!” You may be exclaiming.  This is not far off from the truth actually. Though I love hiking, the last many years have not afforded me with much opportunity to do it, that is where NZ has come in, to make up for that lost time.  I’ve hiked in five national parks, numerous other little treks between and sometimes made my own trails.  I hike fast and hard, turning five day treks into three days, almost always cutting the estimated completion time by at least a third, and yet I still ensure I always appreciate the nature around me.  My feet have come to hate me, and I’m pretty sure I have a cracked bone in my left foot and torn tendon in my right, but hey that’s what makes it interesting and challenging.  Some of the most memorable hikes have been the trek to the small Arthur’s Pass Wakamiriri Hut nestled on three sides by glacial and snow capped mountains and on the fourth by a stunning waterfall complimented with stars so brilliant in the moonless night, the hike out to the Copland Hot Springs where I completely missed the start of the marked trail and instead followed the river for 8km, at one point literally hacking through very very dense bush but still managing to link up with the trail (this turned out to be a much cooler route than the actual marked on I followed on the way back out hahah), the relaxing day walk to the Cascade Saddle after a hard day’s hike on the Rees-Dart in picture perfect weather and getting to bask in the sun while lying in the grass for two hours in awe of the landscape of glaciers and jagged mountains and of course there’s the most recent multi-mountain ridge-line walk of the Kepler trek which though I didn’t have perfect weather was still strikingly beautiful.  Yes, these and many more hikes have been my purpose here in NZ, and this country never fails to deliver.

I suppose the last question you may hesitate to ask would be, “Not to pry, but I do believe you mentioned something about gallivanting about in your birthday suit earlier? What is all this tom-foolery and poppycock about?” You see my friends, there are certain things in my life that are on the “to-do-before-I-die” list.  Oddly (or perhaps commonly?) enough a number of them involve being buck naked.  One of those items was to stand naked at the top of a mountain.  I mentioned before the perfect day of the Cascade Saddle hike, well while I was sun tanning topless up there alone I realized that what better opportunity than now to bare myself to the world! So, after a quick look and seeing only mother nature around I dropped the old pantaloons and drawers, placed my hands on my hips and laughed semi-maniacally as I was free-flying in the gentle breeze.  Of course as circumstance would have it, after being the only one there for the previous 45 minutes, not 30 seconds later an unfortunate (or fortunate?) soul happened to come over the ridge-line in site of me wearing only my smile.  A slightly awkward moment yet hilariuos one to say the least.  There was also when I went un-garbed in those Copland hot springs, swam a few strokes au naturel in the frigid river near the camp site of the Kepler trek and of course as I live out of my car I’m  always having to change in or beside it even in cities.  It’s a wonderfully strange and exhilarating feeling to throw off the shackles of our clothing-centric society, and one I think we all need to experience every little while.

And with the vivid imagery of the sun reflecting off my stark-naked hiking-sculpted, sun-bronzed Greek* figure my dear readers, I shall bid you adieu!

——————————————————–

*Author’s Note: The word “Greek” may be interchanged with the word “hairy” for more accurate visualization.

When you set out
Know not where you will go.
Give in to the the wind
Sail which way it will blow.

Take chances, trust people
To complete strangers be kind,
Learn from everyone and everything,
Store it all in your mind.

Expand your horizons and be open
To a new type of thought,
Wonderous religions and philosophies,
Incredible things you’ll be taught.

Always make yourself happy,
Find the good in the bad.
Don’t worry, don’t fret
And a far better time will be had.

For it is only time,
And you’ll be through it soon,
On another adventure
Beneath a new moon.

And take time at night
To contemplate the stars.
The cosmos, our universe
Blackholes and pulsars.

Don’t go with a set purpose
Or for a certain nation,
Because my dear friends,
The journey is the destination.

For those of you that don’t know, I’m currently driving around New Zealand in a sweet little 4door hatchback that I’ve rented for 7 weeks. It’s working out to be a bit more expensive than I had anticipated but the freedom it affords is amazing!

I bought a bunch of used camping gear from a guy in Auckland that was just finishing up his 3 month road trip and it was a great deal for everything. For 8 days now I’ve been camping by the beach, by some rivers and here in Wellington in my car by the boardwalk with a bunch of other campervan folk!

Some of the highlights so far have been:
- Having showered only in the ocean, rivers and lakes of NZ for the past 8 days.
- Waking up at 5am to leave a camp site early so I wouldn’t get yelled at for camping there and having the bonus of the clearest star studded sky I’ve seen
- Body surfing masssssive waves!
- Trying to learn how to surf for 2 hours (did actually get up a few times too! But this was also in those same massive waves hahah hard to learn on)
- Sleeply packing up my stuff in my tent at 6:30 in the morning then having a nice elderly New Zealand man come by and say, “Knock knock are you awake? There was an earth quake in Chile so there is a taunami headed our way. Should be here by around 7 or so. Care to come up to the top of the hill and have some tea and coffee with us?” (which I took him and his wife up on and had some great coffee and toast!)
- Hiking the my first “Great Walk”, the Tongariro Northern Circuit! (around Mount Doom for you LOTR fans) and doing it in 2 days vs the standard 3. Although my feet would beg to differ that this was a wise choice hahah
- Driving 2000kms and having maybe 10kms of straight road lol a biker’s wet dream!

And now I’m headed to the South Island for 5 weeks! I’ll try and get some pictures up sometime in the next week or so to share because my god it’s beautiful here!

Until then my friends…

It’s 9:30am and I’ve just arrived at the Los Angeles airport from a transfer in Dallas and Buenos Aires before that.  My flight out to Auckland isn’t until 11:30pm so I figure now’s a good time to head out and see a bit of LA.  From talking with a few different people, Santa Monica was the place to go.  I jump on the airport bus to the public bus terminal and catch the 30min ride into town.

It’s a nice area, all the shops are just starting to open and the streets are starting to fill up.  I cruise around, window shopping at various stores trying on hats*, looking at clothes I can’t afford and jumping on my iPod and cruising the net when I’m in range of free wifi.

The day wanes on with nothing particularly exciting happening** as I walk the harbour front, the pier and various streets of Santa Monica. As evening sets in more people begin filling the streets, everyone undoubtedly going to the posh restaurants in the area for sushi and doing some shopping at the high end stores.  As I am waiting to cross one of the busy intersections I see a man on the other side holding a piece of cardboard and laughing while yelling at some people on my end of the street.  He’s probably in his mid forties, his raggedy hair and torn clothes jostling with his movements, a beaming smile proudly displaying his missing teeth.

The light turns green for him to walk over and about halfway across his eyes lock onto mine.  I grin back honestly as he just seems so happy crossing the road.  He takes that as an invitation to come over and talk to me. I naturally presume he’s homeless and going to ask me for money, but most of the ones that are that happy usually have something clever to say or are at least fun and interesting to talk to for a minute.

He gets close as he starts talking to me and I’m surprised to realize that his breath smells (verrrryy strongly) like garlic versus the usual smoke or alcohol. His boisterous and friendly attitude beaming from his grinning face. This should be interesting, I think to myself.

Him: Hey! Can I ask you a question?

Me: Well in asking me if you could ask a question you’ve already asked a question!

Him: Hmmm, well can I ask you another question?

Me: Hahaha you just did again!

Him: Hahaha oh come on, I just want to ask you if you think this is as funny as I do.

He holds out his piece of cardboard for me to read. “Stop circumcision!” is written in dark black letters across the top with the rest of it filled with smaller writing in pen.

Him: You see I’ve been protesting circumcision for over 20 years now.

Me: A good cause! I too am against circumcision.***

Him: Exactly! That’s why I have this sign.

Me: It’s a nice sign hahah

Him: You see all this small stuff here?

Me: Yes

Him: I’ve tried to come up with all the different uses of the word! I think I’ve written all the inflections of it.  Conjugations of it as a verb and declensions as a noun and come up with sentences for them.

Me: hahaha really? That’s pretty hilarious man!

I take a closer look at the cardboard and indeed, everything is there as far as my knowledge of grammar**** goes.

Him: Here check this one out, I just wrote it today and I think it’s hilarious! I want to see if you do too.

He points to the phrase near the bottom that is bigger than the other ones.

Him: It’s using it in a passive subjunctive sentence! “I don’t feel so good.  I must be being circumcised.”

He looks at me grinning after reading it out to me.  The entire reality/absurdity/wonderful strangeness of the situation hits me and I burst out laughing.  He joins in my laugh, seemingly pleased with my response as his already friendly smile transforms into a booming laugh.

Me: hahaha ya man that is indeed pretty damn funny! Some fine work there!

Him: Why thank you, I’m glad you think it’s funny too! Alright have a good night.

Me: Will do and you too. Keep on spreading the good word against circumcision!

Him: Always!

He walks away down the sidewalk, catching up with his friends he was yelling at previously.

That was interesting I think to myself, he didn’t even want any money! All he wanted to know is if his passive subjunctive sentence using the word circumcised was funny or not hahahah

Ahhh what an interesting world we live in with such interesting people.

_____________________________________

* due to the high efficiency of my brain, less volume is needed so my head is smaller than most people’s thus resulting in almost all hats digging into my ears.  So I’m on a constant mission to find a hat that both fits me and I really like…I am still on that mission.

** except I ended up buying the Patagonia – Better Sweater that I always wanted for far too much money than any sweater should be…I am weak…lol

*** true story

**** which is an extremely limited knowledge of grammar because I like to say that being an engineer provides me with an excuse to not concern myself with proper understanding of my own language.  Talk math**** to me baby!!

***** which I’ve clearly all forgotten since I’ve been out of uni for 2.5 years…hahah

I stare up at the vast star spotted Argentinian sky from the large 2nd floor bus window on the way to Buenos Aires and think to myself of all the other people in the past and future that have smiled and will smile looking up at the stars as I am right now. Thinking, wondering, taking a moment, however brief,  from the insanity of normal day life and just having an appreciation of being.

All of us sharing one instantaneous life in a finite amount of infinite parallel moments. Taking the time to appreciate what we have, the awesome wonder of an experience, of reflection, of life.

Being able to make our life and those we meet greater and greater.  It´s losing yourself in one of those moments and saying to yourself, el mundo es hermoso.

——————————————————————–

I wrote this on the 17hr bus ride from Tucuman to Buenos Aires last week.  I haven´t updated the blog in a while so thought I´d toss this up for fun! I´m not sure if this kind of thing is the answer to when people ask if I´m traveling to ¨find myself¨, but maybe! The one thing I´ve loved about traveling and these crazy long distances between places is that it gives me time to just think about anything and everything.  I don´t think we take enough time out in normal life to just do that without distractions for hours on end.

In normal news though,  Buenos Aires has been a lot of fun! I´ve met quite a few amazing people here at the hostel, many in the same place in their lives that I am which is great hahah

A couple nights ago we went out to a salsa club/pub for a few drinks and the people dancing combined salsa and samba into some awesome dancing.  The moves these people were pulling off were incredible!  I don´t know if they had just grown up on it or were actual professionals, but I really wish I had had my camera to snap some pictures or movies of the stuff they were doing!

Headed to NZ tomorrow night (leave wed night…arrive saturday morning…figure that one out!), which I´m pretty psyched for!  I´ve already started looking into the WWOOFing (organic farming help for food and lodging) locations in the different areas of NZ and some of them are truly awesome.  I have no plans yet, but I´ll figure it out as I go along (as this is the best way to travel by far!) haha

Next post will hopefully have some good stories from NZ next week!

Finally found an internet cafe here in Argentina that has a decent connection!

Pictures from the end of Peru and then Bolivia up to the salt flat tours:
Click me!

Pictures from the salt flat tours:
Click me!

Enjoy!

After spending a few weeks in Bolivia, there are a few things I´ve guess you could say I´ve ¨learned¨.

Things I´ve taken for granted living in Canada:

• paved roads
• adherance to traffic signs and lights…actually…even just having traffic signs and lights!
• street names found at intersections
• drinkable tap water
• a strong currency (relative to most of South America)
• everyone speaking English
• lack of hippies
• flushing toilet paper down the toilet
• not having to work in a mine
• not having a rainy season
• hot water for showers!
• being able to travel 60kms by car in under 3.5hrs (see first bullet point)
• not being asked to have my fabric hiking boots polished by the shoe shine boys lol…
• internet faster than 28k dialup

Things I´ve started to take for granted traveling in Bolivia:

• $4 per night hostels, $6/hr horse back riding, $10 for 12hr bus rides (and in luxury mind you! Grayhound, you could learn a thing or two…), all inclusive 4 day adventures for $150, hell….dirt cheap everything!!
• lack of laws replaced by common sense.  For example: they leave the door on the public bus open all the time, if you go near it while the bus is moving and fall out, it´s your own fault!
• empanadas…mmmmmmmm
• 1litre yogurts in every store for breakfast!
• if I were wearing dress shoes, then the ability to get them shined at intervals of every 20 feet!
• terrifyingly exhilarating bus rides on flooded mountain switchback roads with shear cliff drop-offs hahah
• crazy markets with a ridiculous abundance of food!

I guess this is the official good-bye to Bolivia, you will be sorely missed, and a giant steak and wine hello to Argentina!