Comments on: Driving the South Island of New Zealand (Part 2): Mountains, Mazes, Bungy Jumping, & Lord of the Rings!

By: Cliff

Cliff — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:21:48 +0000

Thumbs up for the Blue Pools, we also walked out there (a nice break from being in the car), but they weren’t very blue the day we were there because there’d been too much rain (which a local said washed out the blue coloring from the pools).

Also did Puzzling World, although not the maze. I loved the Ames room and the slanted room was really strange, caused me a bit of vertigo. I remember thinking that kids would probably love the place for the big entry/gift shop room with all the puzzles everywhere.

And we made the locals quite impatient as my mother was driving during the leg between Wanaka and Queenstown and she was going quite slow down the switchbacks.

While I didn’t bungee jump (I wanted to do the canyon swing instead but didn’t really have the time in our schedule for it), I agree with Courtney that it can be scary to drive up those steep mountains. We went stargazing on top of Mt. John near Lake Tekapo (unfortunately we didn’t think to check that the moon was almost full, so we couldn’t see the stars very well) and the bus driver that took us up the mountain (also without guardrails) at 10pm at night TURNED OFF THE HEADLIGHTS once he got most of the way up the mountain to preserve people’s night vision. And we had a full load which kept slowing the bus to a stop and he’d have to restart forward motion with a jerk from first gear. Not confidence-inspiring at all.

By: 20 Buildings That Seemingly Could Collapse In A Second | Weird Pictures, Wonderful Things

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:25:55 +0000

[...] Source [...]

By: John T.

John T. — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:31:44 +0000

This is a cool site, I enjoy reading about stuff like this. In 2009, I had about 100K in credit card debt, been through bankruptcy twice (1992 & 2004) and couldn’t deal with it anymore. I called all of my creditors and settled for about 30-40 cents on the dollar. In January, 2010, for the first time in my life I was debt free ( other than a home and a car loan) and actually started building my net worth. Making good financial decisions and trying to live life to the fullest is what I see all of you doing, congrats. I hope to someday be at that point in my life.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:09:43 +0000

The bridge looks like the one that busted on Indiana Jones. Awesome trip!

By: Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot

Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 02:01:58 +0000

It’s a special place. Fabulous that you were able to see NZ properly before leaving. Glad you got that camera back. I spent an unpleasant hour rifling through public bins looking for my stolen car keys last year but they never turned up. The smell of stale cigarette butts and fish and chip wrapper is still with me though:(

By: Financial Samurai

Financial Samurai — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:52:54 +0000

Mountains, nice! Adam, where you been and watcha up to recently? Jun L. says HELLO! Met up with him in SF.

By: Gordie

Gordie — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:25:01 +0000

Geez, you really know how to make me homesick. I love your long updates of your travels. Thanks, Baker!

By: Hopper

Hopper — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:58:12 +0000

Great pics and videos!

Courtney, That jump was AMAZING! It made me dizzy just watching the video.

By: Yan

Yan — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:19:41 +0000

Your bungy jumping video reminded me of a story told by a guy we met during a skiing trip this winter. The guy claimed Mnt Everest with a group of people and when they were down they went to a Nepali village to bungy jump. He said he was the only person from a group of around 100 who went that day who didn’t jump. Something just didn’t feel right. He also mentioned something about “unnecessary risk” and it was funny to hear it from someone who just climbed the highest mount on Earth

By: Meg

Meg — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:17:14 +0000

Yikes! That bungy jump…. Okay, I know it’s something I absolutely have to do. It looks terrifyingly exhilarating. Seems like we haven’t made it to your drama part yet, Baker. I’m dying to know exactly what you did to that poor car. I haven’t forgotten those mysterious twitter snippets.

And to see Thailand, of course! Definitely making me eager to GTFO and see more of the world, for sure. (After we move and set up multiple trips to Seattle, it’s Tokyo or bust for us, I swear.)