Around the World in 110 Days!

December 15, 2006

Day 110 Back home in Chicago!!!!

Filed under: Uncategorized — jmdorfman @ 11:30 pm

Hello everyone. So, I actually made it around the world!!!! I can’t believe it. It was definitely a bit sketchy at times. Well, anyway, it’s back to a work for me. In fact, I start on Monday, so I re-enter reality pretty quickly. I must say that it is nice to be back and not have to worry about my stuff or moving around or etc though.

Anyway, I just want to thank everyone that read my blog. And for anyone that I spoke to on my trip, if you are ever in Chicago, look me up! My email is jmdorfman@yahoo.com.

Cheers and g’day everyone,
John

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Day 107-110 San Francisco

Filed under: Uncategorized, San Francisco — jmdorfman @ 11:24 pm

Okay, here is my San Fran entry. So I was basically here for a couple of days and essentially did nothing. I stayed and hung out at my friend’s place. We watched episodes of Coupling, the British comedy, saw a French martial arts film and basically chilled. Also, I went salsa dancing with another friend as well. It was a great time after all the adventures I have been through.

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Day 99-107 Hawaii

Filed under: Uncategorized, Hawaii — jmdorfman @ 11:20 pm

Hello everyone. So my stay in Hawaii was interesting. Hawaii attracts interesting people. I have to say that in most hostels that I stayed in people were nice and sane. Not necessarily so at the hostel that I stayed at in Waikiki. Let’s see, there were three very interesting people. There was the drug dealer. He was not in my dorm, but visited. At point, he announces to our room that he is about to go buy some drugs, but that he is short $40 which he is obviously trying to fish from someone. He then goes on to say that he will make a quick $1000 dollars once he sells the stuff. He seemed fairly smart for announcing this to strangers….not. Then there was the guy from Alaska who was basically trying to call his ex-girlfriend every five minutes because she broke up with him. I found out later from someone after he left that he had a bowie knife on him. He seemed slightly unstable as well. The phone thing might have given it away. Next was a local girl from Oahu. She was pretty childlike and appeared to be staying in the hostel indefinitely. She did not want to talk about her background. Actually, her and the Alaska guy went at it on the bunk below me one night…. The one positive thing I can say it that they were remarkably quiet. Anyway, on to the rest of my visit.

So I stayed on Oahu for all 8 days. I heard that the volcano on Big Island was interesting and that Kiwaii (sp?) is a beautiful rainforest, but I needed to relax a bit. So I checked out the beach in Waikiki and walked around a bit. Here is a picture of Waikiki from offshore. I took this while taking a boat to a submarine.

And here is a higher up view of Waikiki from Diamondback, an extinct volcano crater.

Here is a view into the Diamondback crater. It’s easier to see when flying over it in a plane.

While I was there, I also took a ride in a submarine! Here is a pic of the submarine diving.

Here are some pictures I took while in the submarine. The first is the wreckage of an airplane that was put in the water as an artificial reef.

And here are pictures of ships also used as reefs.

You can see a sea turtle in this one just down and right of center!

I also rented a car (a Mustang convertible cause they didn’t have anything cheaper) and drove around the island of Oahu! Here are some pictures.

I also checked out a couple of hula shows. Here is a picture of the stage of one right next to Waikiki beach.

And here is a short video.

WPvideo 1.02

Here is another video of a free hula show at the Marketplace I think in Waikiki.

WPvideo 1.02

This last dance is polynesian dancing at an expensive hula show, Germaine’s Luau. It probably was not worth the price, but this video is kind of interesting.

WPvideo 1.02

So that was pretty much it for Hawaii. It was then on to San Francisco for me.

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December 6, 2006

Day 84-99 New Zealand

Filed under: Uncategorized, New Zealand — jmdorfman @ 5:38 am

So I arrived in Auckland sick on a Wednesday. I was also scheduled to go on a bus tour two days after I arrived. Fortunately, I was able to push back my bus tour a couple of days. So, most of my time I spent lying around my hostel recovering. Fortunately, my fever broke two days after I arrived. I recovered some more until Monday morning when I caught the Magic Bus to start my tour. This tour would take me through the following places: Waitomo, Rotorua, Taupo, Wellington, Nelson, Greymouth, Franz Josef, Queenstown, Dunedin, Lake Tekapo, and Christchurch. I would have to move everyday except for an extra day that I spent in Wellington. It was a bit too grueling, and I would plan it differently next time.

So while I was in Auckland, I did take an aerial view of the city. Here is the pic.

At the first stop of Waitomo, I did the abseling (rappelling) activity. Here is a pic. Also, there was some nice scenery in this area (and pretty much through all of New Zealand). There is a picture of that as well.

That evening, I arrived in Rotorua, and went to this traditional Maori (the original locals) dinner. Here is a picture of their “village.”

The next morning outside of Rotorua, I saw this hot springs area similar to Yosemite National Park.

Here is more countryside in the Rotorua area. New Zealand in general is a beautiful country.

From Rotorua onto Taupo, then onto Wellington. On the way to Wellington, I took a snapshot of the Magic Bus that I rode so much.

And here is a bad picture due to clouds of the mountain that was Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

So I got to Wellington (my favorite city in New Zealand. It reminded me of San Francisco since it had hills, earthquakes, and a seeming progressive atmosphere.) and spent two nights there, the only place I would spend two nights! I used the one full day I had to take a Lord of the Rings tour. The tour showed various sites where the movie was shot and explained the heavy digital editing that took place.

Here is the quarry where they built huge sets of the some of the cities in the movies (it does not look like much now). The next pic shows photos of how the place looked when the sets were still up.

They also showed the spot where Orlando Bloom (Legolas) did a bunch of publicity shoots. Um, so I had one taken myself.

And we got to see the real boat that was used in the new King Kong movie by Peter Jackson. Here it is (sorry, couldn’t get full shot).

Let’s see, so the next morning, I took the ferry across from the North Island to the South Island. Here is a picture on the ferry with Jochan (hope I spelled his name right), a guy I traveled with a little. From the South Island, we caught the Magic Bus again.

Now, my memory is starting to run together, but on the way to Nelson, Greymouth, or Franz Josef, I got to see these pancake rock type formations.

Here are some pics in Franz Josef where there is a glacier. I was going to get helicoptered onto the glacier, but it was canceled due to bad weather that day. These are the pics I took walking toward the glacier.

Let’s see, then I went to Queenstown. I wanted to do some paragliding, but it was too windy, so no luck for me. The next day, I went on to Dunedin. Along the way, some people did bungy jumping. Here are two pics of before and after of one of the guys jumping.

Anyway, this was the world’s first bungy jump. According to my bus driver, business was very slow when they first opened. So they fixed this by giving people free bungy jumps if they jumped nude. Apparently, there were quickly long lines of naked people. They had to cancel the promotion eventually because it was too popular, but it did help start their business.

Once I get to Dunedin, I took a wildlife tour and saw albatross, sea lions, and penguins! Here are a couple pics.

And as the bus was leaving Dunedin, we stopped at supposedly the steepest street in the world! Here is a pic.

From there, the Magic Bus went to Lake Tekapo. In Lake Tekapo, sheep dogs where very important for herding the sheep before they started using fences. Here is a picture of the monument to this effect.

And here is a great shot of the mountains surrounding Lake Tekapo whilst standing near the top of one of them.

I also have some great video, but cannot determine which video is which on this computer. So I will try to update this post later with that. *Updated* Here is the video! Keep in mind we were pretty happy to get to the top after wandering for about 1 and a 1/2 in high winds. *Updated*

WPvideo 1.02

From there, I went onto Christchurch. Here is a picture of the war memorial there as well as an interesting river surrounded by trees.

The day after I arrived in Christchurch, I flew to Auckland. I then flew to Honolulu the day after that.

At any rate, here are a couple of thoughts about New Zealand.

One, like I mentioned in my Australia post, I met a girl who had been sick (seemed like fever on and off, bad upset stomach after eating, headache sometimes) for two weeks when I last saw her in Christchurch. She seemed to be getting better, but very very slowly. Hopefully, she is well by now. Anyway, this just seems to illustrate the interesting illnesses a person can get going to new places and just the stress of traveling.

Two, New Zealand is a beautiful country and I would like to see it again sometime.

Three, New Zealand is kind of like a large tourist trap (it is their largest industry), and I would try to get away from this next time.

Four, they have lots and lots of sheep. They have lots of hills as well which would be fun to hike over.

Alright, that is it for me. So the end of my trip draws near. I leave Hawaii on Friday for San Francisco and will be back in Chicago Monday evening. I am fearing very large reverse culture shock. sigh…

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December 5, 2006

Day 69-84 Australia

Filed under: Uncategorized, Australia — jmdorfman @ 3:37 am

Okay, I am finally getting this Australia update out. So, I have to say that right away Australia and all western countries that I went to afterwards were not as exciting and sort of felt like being at home. The reason for this of course was that I was in about 5 or 6 non-western (so total exposure to new cultures) countries in a row, and then I was thrown back to the west. It was still interesting, but it was a different prospective that I would not ordinarily have.

So, I flew into Sydney from Singapore. I relaxed for about 5 or 6 days and checked out the town a little bit. Here are a couple of pics of places / things I took while there.

In Sydney, I also got a haircut Asian style since I needed a haircut shown in picture below. It was just styled that one time and I have not bother to since then to do it.

So, after relaxing a while, I caught a plane to Adelaide. I caught a tour going from there to Melbourne partly along the Great Ocean Road. I left on the tour the morning after I arrived in Adelaide. One of the first spots was the continental divide. Here is a pic near the top of a mountain / hill.

Here is another pic somewhere in the area of the continental divide as well.

Once we got to the Great Ocean Road, at one point, we saw the Twelve Apostles
( see pic ).

I also took a helicopter ride in the area! Here are a couple of pics in the helicopter.

Um, and here are some kung fu poses. The first one in along the Great Ocean Road. The second one is further one feeding some sort of tropical bird.

Then I arrived in Melbourne. Here is a pic.

So, when I arrived in Melbourne, the next day I promptly became sick. I also stayed in this refurbished Victorian building. It was so well done that I it freaked me out since a person would expect Victorian ghosts floating around. It was also a bit interesting because I was the only person in an 8 dorm room. So, from this, I discovered that I have no love for restored Victorian buildings. After spending three days in Melbourne, I caught an overnight bus from Melbourne back to Sydney. I spent that night in Sydney and flew out the next day to Auckland, New Zealand! During this whole time from Melbourne on, I was sick. On the plane, I thought it was interesting that I was a disease vector (although other people were sick on the plane as well).

Let’s see, other things, unfortunately I did not get to the Outback. Also, I here that the west coast is pretty good to explore. So if I get a chance to get back, I would go there next time.

Anyways, that was my trip in Australia. Stay tuned for New Zealand adventures. Just to let you know in advance, my “flu” went away, and I meet someone who was sick longer and worse than I was.

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