GOOD BYE, MY TRAVEL BUDDY!

My Hi-Tec hiking boots had been my travel buddy for 7 years; been to Japan, Egypt, some European countries, many hiking trails in Taiwan and this time to New Zealand.

Maybe it was about the time for end of its life. On the second day of my New Zealand trip, the left foot of this shoes was broken. Then right foot one was broken on the day before end of this trip. I fixed them with glue, so I could still finish this trip, even went bungy with this pair of shoes.

This pair of shoes was bought in Hong Kong in 2003 and had been to many places. So I thought New Zealand would be a good location for end of its life. I believe my travel buddy is happy about this ending, so I just left it in New Zealand instead of taking home.

Today, I bought a new pair of Salomon hiking boots at a quite nice discount price. I think it can be my travel buddy for another 7 years.

AWESOME GLACIER TOUR

The Southern Alps of New Zealand are 720Km long, and there are 2 major glaciers in this area; one is Franz Josef Glacier which is 10Km long, another is the Fox Glacier, about 13Km long. We only see glaciers on NGC or Discovery channel, and they are kind of unreachable.

We arrived at the town of Fox Glacier on Feb. 14, then we spent 2 hours for a short hiking trip to Fox Glacier. I never thought I could be so closed to a glacier, it was a real NGC show in front of me! Because we did not follow a professional glacier guide, so we could not really touch the glacier, but only 20 meters away from it. It was really an exciting experience.

On Feb. 15, a great sunny day! We decided to take a helicopter flight to LAND on Fox Glacier. It was my second time to take helicopter, but I still felt exciting. An Eurocotper AS350 Astar took us from town of Fox Glacier up to mountain and make a landing on the Fox Glacier. The experience was too good to be true; it could be the once in life time experience for me to feel and touch the real glacier. The pilot also flew us around the glacier to give us a clear view of how glacier looks like. We also saw the hiking trail which we took on previous day.

This 20 min flight cost us NZD180 each person, but it was a great value to us.

More photos of Fox Glacier

BUNGY: TO JUMP OR NOT TO JUMP

Kawarau Suspension Bridge, New Zealand is the place where bungy jump began. It has been more than 20 years since 1988. I only saw this exciting sports in TV before and never thought I would have a chance to try it.

Till the previous night of visiting the first commercial bungy site in the world, I was still not sure I wanted to do it. In the morning, Jane reminded me to wear contact lenses instead of glasses, in case I wanted to make a jump. Thanks for Jane's support, I want to see everything clear when I am falling down!

When we arrived the site, it was before operating hour, so no one there. I walked to the center of the bridge and looked down, then I made my mind. "I want to jump!" and I am the only one in the tour group to try. So I made my first bungy jumping and entertained my group members.

"Did you feel scared?" that is the most frequent asked question. In fact, I was so exciting and felt nervous until the instructor tied the bungy cord to my legs. The most scaring part is not jumping, is to move your feet to the jumping platform. "Why am I here?" I asked myself after taking the "good-bye" photos.

Anyway, I had to make the jump. So I just leaned my body forward and found I was getting closer and closer to the river. It was quite weird experience to me. I felt no fear, but enjoyed the moment of falling....

The young guy before me said he felt like dying, the old man next to me told me it happened too fast, so no special feeling. I think this is something you have to experience by yourselves. No one will have the same feeling for bungy jump.

I am glad I made the jump at the world home of bungy. I got a jumper T-shirt and a certification. Also, I spent extra 45 NZ dollars for a nice set of photos.

More photos

STUNNING MILFORD SOUND

Milford Sound is fjord located in South Island of New Zealand within Fiordland National Park. We took a long ride of bus from Te Anau for visiting Milford Sound. The best way to enjoy the view of this beautiful place it to take a scenic cruise. We were quite lucky to have a great sunny day when we took the cruise. We enjoyed the view on the deck, but needed to face strong wind.

The Milford Sound is surrounded by sheer rocks up to 1,200 meters; snow on the top of some mountains, water falls splash into the sea, some times clouds cover part of these mountains. These combinations create different stunning images of Milford Sound. During the 1 hour and 40 minute cruise, always something make you "WOW".

Jane said "it is so beautiful, like the home of AVATAR." It is quite true! This place is too beautiful to be true.

More photos of Milford Sound

BEAUTIFUL AND NATURAL NEW ZEALAND

"There are much more sheep than human in that country!" this is people's common image of New Zealand. It is the truth that sheep population is about 4 times of human population in NZ. And it is also the cleanest country I've ever visited.

Especial in South Island, there are a lot of natural attraction sites to visit and a lot of exciting outdoor activities worthy to try. I spent about 6 days in New Zealand, saw something really special and tried something unique. After this trip, I think I will make another trip to NZ again to explore more of it.

CHERRY BLOSSOM

We went hiking at Shrding Township (石碇鄉) on Sunday, and so surprised to see the cherry blossoms. Those cherry blossoms we saw are not the cherry blossoms we are sued to see in Japan, it is Prunus campanulata (山櫻花) or called Formosa Cherry. The good timing for enjoying Formosa Cherry blossoms is from late January to early March. Hope some of you can have a chance to see this beautiful scenery.

More photos

NICE TO SEE MR. MURATA AGAIN

3 year ago, the very famous Japanese artist Range Murata (村田蓮爾) came to Taiwan for an art exhibition. That was my first to meet him. This year he came to Taiwan again to join the 2010 Taipei International Book Exhibition.

On Jan. 29, he had a 1.5 hour event of live demo. We arranged hardware and software for him; glad we got his request few weeks ago, so we can prepare the Japanese version OS and software for him.

Before the event started, we asked Mr. Murata to test the equipments. At that time he realized we met 3 year ago. I was kind surprised that he still remembered me. I asked him if everything was all right and apologized for the improper software 3 years ago. He smiled and told me everything was OK and not to mind about what happened before.

Anyway, this time we had quite a good preparation for his demo. Though he has only about one hour for the live demo, he still created a painting from sketch. That was really amazing!

Due to his tight schedule, we did not have too much talk. But I am glad to see Mr. Murata again and help him to have a wonderful event with his fans.