travel.log

O

USA -> India -> Thailand -> Singapore -> Malaysia -> Australia -> New Zealand -> USA

ha, feels so good typing that. The journey has come full circle. It was an experience of a life time to say the least. I met so many interesting people, experienced many different cultures in such a short time, saw so many beautiful places, had so many different kinds of food, it has been a thrilling ride. 2011 has truly turned out in to a dream year.

Thanks to my family for supporting me on this (pretty sure my Dad has given up understanding how this whole remote working + traveling thing works for me), thanks to my friends who I had to rely on for things in the middle and to all my colleagues who had to put up with my ever changing time schedules and for taking on my support duties sometimes (when I was in deep sleep on other other end of the world).  And last but not the least, the man without whose support this crazy ride would have never happened, the one and only ……..  Jeff Judge!

  /  

1

Last night here in Auckland and New Zealand. Found more photos on my phone :-)

  /  

2

The feeling is sinking in now that I will be flying back. Lot of things going on in my brain right now. Interesting.

Uploaded more mountains and lakes - all random photos taken while traveling on bus/train

  /  

3

After lot of waiting for weather to improve, I did the tangariro crossing hiking. 23 kms - took about 6 hrs. If you have seen the lord of the rings movies, you will recognize Mt. Doom in the photos below.

  /  

4

4 more days to go in the land of the long white cloud! Flying in to Chicago on 19th.

Photos from the Milford Sound tour when I was in Queenstown:

  /  

waitomo caves

Went to waitomo caves last week. It is yet another highlight of the north island. It is known for its glow worm caves. NZ hasn’t let me down when it comes to adventure. This wasn’t any different. It was a 7 hour lost world adventure. I had a great time, exhausted at the end. It almost felt like I was in the army doing some obstacle course.

It involved abseiling down 100 metres into the cave and then making our way up through the caves. The highlight of the trip for me was a spot where we had to boulder up one of the caves but you had to swim against the stream (which I did on my 3rd attempt) to get there and then climb up while the water is pounding from above. It took me about 15 mins to finally nail it but man, it was something. Few photos from the trip.

  /  

White Island - Volcano

Last Saturday I went to check out an active volcano! There is an island called the White Island which is an active volcano. It erupts approximately once every 10 years it seems. The last one was in 2000 and they predict the next one is due anytime. That is a little scary and exciting at the same time :) As soon as we landed on the island, they gave us instructions on what to do if volcano erupts when we are there. Just hearing that in itself makes you a little uncomfortable. Although, it is pretty safe. The geologists have rated the volcano at stage 2 now (where stage 1 is really low chance and stage 5 is catastrophic).

So, basically the hot lava was about 1km below where we were standing. In geological terms, that is extremely close I hear. In the photos you can see the white steam gushing out. That is basically water falling on the hot lava, turning into steam and coming out.

This is another one of those things you just have to do when you are in New Zealand. It is due soon, so either wait for the next one to erupt and then go or just risk it and go now (just kidding)!

  /  

Taupo :(

I was in Taupo (4 hrs north of Wellington) for the past 4 days. Wanted to do the Tongariro Crossing which is supposedly one the best hikes in the world. Unfortunately the weather has been so bad for the past few days, they have cancelled all hikes around that area :( Yesterday, the entire town of Taupo had power shutdown because of storms. Apparently 4 substations shut down and engineers couldn’t get to the station because of flying debris and stuff. I came to Rotorua today, it is just an hour or so north of Taupo. This is another popular place in north island known for geothermal activity, geysers and hot pools. I am planning to stay here for few days and then go to Taupo for a day (if weather gets better and they open up hiking).

Photo of natural hot pool I came across when I went hiking a couple days ago in Taupo. The water was really hot! It was a fun experience. This is the first time I have come across a stream of hot natural water.

  /