You might want to start at the beginning – check out Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7.

My initial plan was to travel on my own in New Zealand for the two months I was there. A friend of mine had 2 weeks off of work and wanted to do the first two weeks so she came along and we had a great time. We jumped on the Stray bus and did the North Island together and had to part ways when I headed to the South Island. I would recommend the Stray bus for some but if I had to do it over again I would actually just use their InterCity bus system and save some money. Stray was nice because I got to shut off my brain and let someone show me the sites and help me figure out where to stay. Also a nice built in social atmosphere.

One of my favorite stops was Abel Tasman. I did a three day hike and met a guy and we started talking about travel. I am always inspired by those who just get out there and see the world. Who just DO IT. I decided on that beach that I was going to save up enough money to take at least a year off of work and just travel by the time I was 40. I estimated that I would need about $50k.

Onetahui beach Abel Tasman

I got down to Queenstown, New Zealand, the adventure capitol of the world, and and decided before I got there I could care less about bungee, zip lining and zorbing but wanted to do the Canyon Swing. Imagine a giant rope swing suspended 109m (300+ feet) over the Shotover River. You jump off a cliff, have 60m (200ft) of free fall, reaching speeds of 80 miles an hour and then gently swing back and forth in your full body harness. You might have seen it on an episode of the Biggest Loser. I jumped once and then found out that if you go topless you get your second jump for 1/2 price. I’m ALWAYS after a bargain so jumped two more times. SO MUCH FUN!

On the Canyon Swing, backwards

I couldn’t find a couch to surf in Queenstown and picked a small hostel after meeting a girl named Bari in Wanaka, the town before. She was another person who helped shape the course of my life, are you seeing a trend here? Bari was dating one of the employees of the Canyon Swing and she invited me out to drinks with them. I was so in awe of the swing. How does someone come up with this idea?? Who started it?? What were they thinking?? Well, I got to find that out. One of he owners of the Canyon Swing walked in and sat down next to me. I had not been exposed to many entrepreneurs at that time. To me when you “own a business” that doesn’t always mean it was your idea. You could have bought it? Or you just run it, right?

I asked Chris, the owner, “so whose idea was this?”
He tells me “Mine.”
“No, like who came up with the idea for the swing?”
“I did”
“No, really… I mean you own it, but who STARTED it?”
“Me”

Wow.

How does that even happen? We chatted more and more about travel, outdoors, my road trip through New Zealand, etc. He’s single, never been married, no kids, 41, ruggedly handsome, active, adventurous, funny, easy to chat with. I watched as he drank his beer. I was drinking a vodka cranberry. I started drinking at the same pace as him. My drink was almost empty which means his was almost empty. Without asking I walked up to the bar ordered one more for each of us and set them down. I wasn’t finished chatting with him.

He told me he was planning a road trip with a girl friend (two words, not girlfriend one word) but she couldn’t come due to flooding in her house. He had to be in Auckland on March 7th for wedding. I just changed my flight the week before and had to be in Auckland on March 9th. He was taking the same route the Stray bus was for the most part. Seemed like a pretty fun adventure. So I hopped off the Stray bus and into his Subaru a couple days later to start our month long trip up north.

Crazy? It sure is a way to get to know someone!