The only ones whose troubles that are behind them are school bus drivers.

I got up early to meet the bus from Christchurch to Te Anau for another 10 hour trip. The bus driver spoke frequently about the various sights along the way throughout the entire journey, however I mostly used the time to listen to my "The Count of Mote Cristo" audio book but was still able to see a lot of eastern New Zealand.

I arrived in Te Anau around 7:15PM and checked into the hostel before taking the boat to check out the glowworm caves. It was dark, so I really could not enjoy the beauty of the surrounding mountains. the cave experience was a bit too short to really enjoy, but was a different experience. We walked along several catwalks before getting to the boat in which we loaded up and were hand pulled by chains into the darkness. the big draw were the glowworms which had a luminescent effect such that the ceiling resembled a starry night.

Cult: The church up the street from yours.

I slept until about 10 o'clock in the morning which made this the latest I would get up during the entire trip, but I definitely needed the rest. The hostel in which I had stayed last night was the Jailhouse Accommodation that was a jail in Addington, just outside Christchurch city limits. It was converted to a hostel while maintaining the theme. Though the room was expectedly sparse, it was pretty much all I needed. After a shower and a few pictures, I headed towards town. Christchurch is know as the 'Garden City' so my first stop was to spend some time in the huge botanical park. I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the park and all the different sections, greenhouses, and displays. There were a lot of beautiful places around here to experience during the perfect day weather.

After walking the gardens I checked out the Christchurch Canterbury Museum for a while (nice in that I could drop off my pack for a short time) before heading into downtown Christchurch. I was able to get a room at the Base X hostel and spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the city. After talking to some roommates for a while in the evening, we had a few drinks in the downstairs bar before I had to get some rest due to an early morning wake-up to catch my bus.

Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200

This was pretty much one of the most exhausting days so far. We had to get up early to catch a ride to the airport. I had such a great time traveling with Mams throughout Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, and Cairns, but now it was time to go on my own solo adventure and start the second half of the trip. I was so exhausted when I landed in Brisbane that I had left my itinerary in the seat pocket and did not remember until I was literally 10 seconds out of the secured zone and even though the guard had seen me leave, she would not allow me to return no matter the application of logic or pleading. I went directly to the airline desk and even though they called the plane, nothing was found (though I question how much they searched when I gave the exact seat number and location. Those sheets had all my information from flights to reservation numbers. Fortunately I had everything saved on my thumb drive and most of the day free before my flight to New Zealand. I took the train into Brisbane (the same one I used to meat the hashers of the bus tour) and after a little searching found a hostel with an Internet area. The staff was nice enough to print out what I needed from their system, so that really saved me an insane amount of hassle. I spent another couple of hours answering e-mail, making some phone calls home using Skype, backing up data, and researching some of the next legs of the trip. I then walked around the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens for a while before returning to the airport. I'd been carrying my luggage the entire time and was pretty tired and not really in the mood for any more hassles. When I got off the train to the airport someone asked if they could see my ticket and looked dumbfounded when I said no and just kept on going as there was no barrier in front of me to block my way. I guess in some cases it doesn't always work as when I went through security I was apparently 'randomly selected' for a secondary screening. I almost laughed at the look on the face of the guard when they stepped up and asked "would you like to place your bag here on the table" indicating the secondary area. Of course I didn't want to do so and simply said "no, I do not" and kept going. It looked as if they had never comprehended that someone would actually give an honest answer, but the question was quickly reworded to an imperative, so I complied with whatever was needed. I still laugh when think of that incident (small things amuse me to no end).

I landed in Christchurch a little ahead of schedule, but still quite late at night, and had to wait for the city bus to come by to take me into town. It took 30 minutes to walk to the only hostel I could reach by telephone that had any vacancies, but I really wanted to have a real bed and room all to myself for the first time in three weeks of traveling. So, late in the evening, after a long trip and my first real exposure to New Zealand, I went directly to jail.

SCUBA diving: so many bodies of water, so little money!

I just finished four days of diving on the Great Barrier Reef aboard the liveaboard TAKA. The weather turned out to be simply outstanding with even the crew saying that it was the best they had seen in months. Diving this reef was quite high on my 'things to do before I die' list and I am glad to have been able to experience it in this manner. The weather was calm the entire time with barely any waves or major current. I have the say that the food was the best I have ever had on any trip. The chef, Jason did an outstanding job on every single meal and every one of the divers gave him rave reviews! The diving itself was pretty spectacular as we were blessed with excellent visibility for most of the trip. The biggest problem I had with the operation was the lack of flexibility. No matter the skill level or gas used, the dive time was the same, so had I know this, I would have forgone the added expense of using NITROX. The staff instructors were pretty standard fare in that they had the requisite basic skills, but nothing noteworthy (i.e. spent more time vertical than horizontal, kicked up bottom, etc).

On most of the dives we saw just about too much to describe and I think Mams really enjoyed herself. We got along quite well with the other divers and had as much fun out of the water as in it. Most were new (and even a couple not certified), but all really seemed to have a blast. Each night during dinner we would watch the edited video shot during the dives by John. I was struck by how expansive the barrier reef really was. Even when on top of the large ship, across my entire field of view across the horizon stretched reef visible by the breaking waves. It was stunning to me how different this reef is to nearly anything in the Untied States. Most of the reefs around the Florida keys and even Cozumel are dying. These dives and those of Roatan last year remind me of how a living reef can actually appear. Even on the long haul back in we had some fun watching the dolphin play in the bow waves.

Mams, Paula (one of the divers we met), and I decided to stay in the hostel together for the evening since we had flights around the same time the next day. After we got in we met some of crew out at a pub called the Green Ant Cantina in downtown Cairns. We were able to meet up with Layla, Mish, Johen, Nigil, Jason (the excellent cook), Claudia (the exquisite deckhand) and a few others. I think we were able to all enjoy drinks together more on the level of friendship than crew and clients. We had a great night out but had to leave too soon as we had to get up by 3:30AM to get a taxi to the airport. After experience this past week I remember why it is so great to be alive and able to enjoy these kinds of things.

Confucius say: Man who put head on railroad track get splitting headache.

Our flight in Perth was delayed by an hour for our departure and we were so tired that I was once again asleep before the safety briefing and only awake long enough to eat and was out again before the tray was picked up. ,It was quite lucky that the connecting flight in Brisbane was also running late as we just had about 10 minutes to catch the flight with our luggage also somehow able to make it. We took a taxi to the dive shop to drop off our luggage. Mams wanted to do some shopping, however I really wanted to take a Skyway Rainforest Cableway tour through the mountains, so we ended up parting for the day. I was able to make arrangement at a tourist booking spot just minutes before the shuttle bus was to come by, so I really lucked out. Timing on this trip has been incredible so far with everything coming together just right.

Once I got to the visitor center, I picked up my ticket and quickly boarded for an excellent ride up the mountainside. This was the longest ride (4.7 miles one-way taking about 90 minutes) I have ever taken and the views and experience were great. The start was at about an elevation of 16ft with the highest point along the way at 1,700 feet, so it was quite a climb. I was fairly thick into the rain forest in just a few minutes and really enjoyed several stops along the way. Each of these transfer stations had a boardwalk going around the rain forest canopy and had interpretive guides that shared some information about the area. The skyrail termination was in the small town of Kuranda that was nice in that it had several other small attractions as well as some eateries, bars, and shops. I even came across a private bat rescue center when wandering around some of the off-beaten paths around the town.

I took the scenic railway back into Cairns to the downtown station just a few blocks from the dive shop. the railway itself was another grand part of the adventure trip and had many sweeping vistas and even stopped for a close-up look at Baron Falls. There was plenty of space in the cars and I could easily move about and even experience the ride between the cars for a short while. After a quick Internet cafe e-mail check I headed to the shop to sign in. When we got there we found out that we had been upgraded to private suites since they had extra bookings in the berths that we had originally reserved. While signing paperwork we chatted with the other divers as we would be spending the next 3-4 days with them. A van picked us up and took us to the boat, Taka, where we loaded out gear after being shown our rooms. Originally we were to be in one of the lower berths with shared facilities, however we were fortunate enough to be bumped into the private suites with out own toilet, shower, and sink area. After a pretty long briefing, we had the first of many incredible meals during the trip.