Fortuna Major!

Ok. Sorry. So far, I've only done four blogposts and one single, measly post was actually made from New Zealand (regardless of a ton of things happening). And I've been here more than a month! I'm going to try better about this.

Following my stay in Christchurch, I took a bus down South to Dunedin. It's a really amazing place reminiscent of a mix between Seattle and San Fransisco (with heaps of New Zealand charm mixed in, of course). It is home to the University of Otago, the oldest university in New Zealand, dating back to 1869. It's still a university town and, as such, has a plethora of amazing coffee shops, dive bars, and plenty of music, art, and outdoor activities.

Port Chalmers outside of Dunedin

Being a university town, there's also a substantial population of younger Kiwis (and internationals). Not necessarily good or bad, but this is in obvious contrast to the predominantly working age (30s-40s) people in CHCH.

I started off my time in Dunedin Couchsurfing with an awesome host named Emma. Their house was at the top of Signal Hill (think Chilcoot St x20, for my Stillwater readers), so I had to make a pretty strenuous climb a few times a day. But the views were amazing, the house was cozy and wonderful, and all the housemates were incredibly kind-hearted and a complete blast to be around.  (plus I got some cardio in any time I needed to go into town).

The view from just above Emma's house

My absolute favorite part of the whole city (so far) has been the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. They were one of the first in all of New Zealand and an amazing place to while away the day. My first few days in Dunedin were the perfect time because everything was in bloom. There was every color imaginable on display and everywhere smelled intoxicatingly saccharine. Even now that most of the flowers have fallen of branch and stem, the Botanic Gardens are the most tranquil and lovely place to take a book and feel the earth breathe.

Rock Garden aka favorite place in my favorite place

My German friend, Anton, running up Baldwin St

Dunedin is home to a bunch of interesting sights, but one caught the notice of my friends and myself. Baldwin Street is very lovingly called the "Steepest Street in the World" by locals and backed up by Guinness World Records (though I have my reservations about the claim's validity). A 19º incline at its steepest, it's a cool place to take some pictures (and a b*tch to walk up).

Gravity wasn't working right that day

Carsten + me pointing to the stage

One thing I never thought I would say: I got to see Fleetwood Mac perform from on top of a bus stop. I heard they were playing at a rugby stadium in town, and a few people I talked to told me you could hear it pretty well even outside. So I took a blanket, bottle of wine, and a friend from the hostel and we found our way to the stadium. We found a place right outside the entrance and sat down, but couldn't see the stage... so we climbed the bus stop and had a perfect view of Stevie Nicks, the McVie brothers, Mick Fleetwood, et al.


Then we made some more friends after people saw up up there and they did the same #trendsetters. Some people even came out saying our spot on the bus stop sounded better than inside (rugby stadiums aren't really known for their acoustics). We even got a thumbs up from a passing police officer (who we thought would actually tell us to get down). All in all, it was a great evening that gave me some memories I will not soon forget (as a promise to FM, thinking about tomorrow won't soon stop either).

Making friends and destroying our vocal chords

The best part of my life right now, though, is that I'm in Middle Earth and I live at Hogwarts (!) School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Hostel. No, it's not quite home to the great magical beings of tomorrow, but it is still very much an awesome place to be staying! I've been working here for accommodation for a bit, and it's just too much fun. I work 2-3 hours a day cleaning in exchange for a bed and some really cool experiences (plus, how many people can put on their resumé that they worked at Hogwarts?). It used to be the Catholic Bishop's house, so it's a really old stone building across from a cathedral which makes it even cooler.

The view from my bedside window

Harry's room

There's a room 9 3/4 and even a cupboard under the stairs where Harry (one of the vacuums) lives.

It's a magical place and I'm happy I found it. Now I just have to figure out how long I'm going to stay here, where I want to go if I leave, and what I want to do in either case. No pressure.

There we go! My second blogpost from NZ and first in more than a month. I left a bunch out, but I figure I'd leave the rest for a different time since this one was getting pretty long in the tooth. I know anyone who reads this probably doesn't care about how frequently I post, but this blog was more for my own sake than anyone else's. When I started I meant to do it bi-weekly to keep a sort of digital journal, so I'm going to at least attempt to make this more frequent (so I don't end up with just 12 posts at the end). Anyway, I'm doing well. I'm in Middle Earth and living at Hogwarts. And I'm still not dead. Cool.

He ihu kurī, he tangata haere

Kia Ora ("hello" in Māori*)!

I've been meaning to get a blogpost in since my arrival, but in between my traveling and adventuring, I've had some pretty unreliable internet connections. So now's probably good a time as any since I'm at a library (free wifi for the win!).

As of 6:00am yesterday morning, I have been in New Zealand for one full week! Sweet as!
I spent a wonderful few days with the pops, some more with sissy, and was happily surprised by the mother lady showing up for a day with the whole fam! After a teary goodbye to Kat, I hopped on a plane to LAX, then a connection to the Land Down Under-er.
Made me think a little: flying is a wonderful, beautiful thing.

Arriving in Christchurch (after a quick stopover at the Auckland airport), one of the first things I obviously did was find my way to the ocean and jump in. It was 8ºC outside. Nice and brisk.

I'm currently in Christchurch, Canterbury. It's the second most populous city in New Zealand, and the largest on the South Island. It was pretty badly damaged by a set of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, where more than 180 people tragically died. Since then, however, the community has come together to rally around restoring the city to its former glory (and even make it better). Because of this, there are numerous construction sites, blank lots, and some structures still seemingly untouched since the ground violently gave way (which you're probably not supposed to go in, but... eh. I like to explore).

There's a eerie beauty to places post-destruction

The people of Christchurch didn't give into despair, though. Many of these lots have become host to an abundance of temporary art installations, pop-up shopping centers, and inspiring homages to those things destroyed in the quakes. Where some cities might leave those spots be, CHCH (common abbv for Christchurch) has gathered its community around these places and made the best of what were literally earth shattering events. One of my favorites is a restaurant/bar made out of an old bus and shipping containers.

A very typical CHCH garden. These are EVERYWHERE!

Christchurch is nicknamed the "Garden City" by the locals, and with good reason. On about every tenth city block, you'll find yet another park. These people like their green spaces. Not only that, but everyone and their grandmothers has a garden in their yard! Because it's the middle of Spring here, it seems I came at the exact right moment. It smells like jasmine and orange blossom everywhere you go (ie, smells like heaven)!


Even if it were for just the smells, CHCH would be well worth the visit. But with the smells come the colors! Never before have I seen more variety of flora outside of a city botanic garden (of which CHCH has the single best botanic garden I've ever seen!). Take a stroll around any neighborhood and, within minutes, your eyes will catch the full spectrum of visible light bouncing off immaculately pruned bushes, trees, vines, et. al. Samwise Gamgee would be well proud.

A lot of my time so far spent has been simply meandering through the city and surrounding areas just exploring and seeing the sights (ie, stopping in every café I find). New Zealand coffee is, bar none, the best I've ever had! They take it pretty seriously here (even McDonalds has trained baristas!). Only bummer is most all of them close at 4:00pm. Like, what? I can't have coffee and use your wifi in the evening? Ugh.

 
One of the best reasons to be in NZ is the tramping (what Kiwis call hiking). Even the so called "unspectacular treks" (those close to the city) are pretty great.

So far, I've stayed at a few hostels and with a Couchsurfing host (who was one of the kindest people I have ever met [though most Kiwis seem to be of the same ilk]). There's definitely more to see in CHCH, so I'm staying here just a little while longer. It's an amazing place with which I've quickly fallen in love. However brilliantly CHCH is rebuilding itself, though, everything is a bit too spread out for me. Most everyone lives in the suburbs while the city center is under constant construction, and whose only real inhabitants are tourists. With the mountains only an hour drive away, it's the closest I've lived to mountain ranges in a while, but I want the ability to walk to a trailhead rather than have to catch a bus. Thus, after this weekend, I'm hopping on whatever mode of transportation I can find destined Southward to the city of Dunedin. Everyone I've spoken with has told me that I would love the laid back city with the beach and the mountains a hop, skip, and a jump away, as well as the passionate café culture and alternative vibes of this university city. But while I'm still in CHCH, I'm going to live it up and get in as much as I possibly can! Upward and onward!

*Māori are the native peoples of New Zealand (Aotearoa). I'll do a history lesson on another blogpost sometime. They're friggin fascinating!

T Minus 2 Days and Counting

Well, U.S.A., it's been real. I'm leaving you on Monday. I think we should see other people/countries. Don't take it personally. It's not you, it's me.

I was kinda freaking out for a while about this whole moving across the world thing. Those feelings have substantially diminished, thank Glob. Now, I'm just ready and raring to go!

Disclaimer: This post has a bunch of pictures. Deal with it.

These past few days, I've been spending in Colorado in the company of my fantastic family. My sister lives in Denver, so I thought I'd spend some time with her before I left. Turns out my dad was in CO for a bit after a conference he ran in Estes Park, so he was the one who picked me up from the airport. We took a three hour drive through the mountains to stay at a yurt our family partially owns (a yurt is a round platform tent first used by Central Asian nomads, and a pretty cool place to sleep).

I was part of the construction crew for this bad boy. We put it together (along with clearing some trails) about seven years ago. And this was the first time I'd stayed there. Yes, I agree. That's not fair. But now I finally got to stay there. And it was awesome!
Dad and I took a little morning hike. It was pretty neat. Here's some pics.

  

After that, we drove to Aspen. We went through Independence pass, which is also one of the highest points in the Rocky Mountains. I took this snap.

A family friend owns a (really nice) cabin in Aspen. We slept on the couches cuz we didn't want to pay the $375 cleaning fee. It had an alright view...

The rest of the day, we went hiking at Maroon Bells (one of the most photographed locations in the U.S.). Despite me being in hiking gear and my dad wearing business casual (and loafters), he kept up pretty well! The hike was gorgeous!

Later, we got some delicious pizza in town, had a few beers in the hot tub, then watched the Democratic debate. It was pretty great.

Kat (sister person) told us she had to work til 10am that morning, so Dad and I started driving to Denver around 6:30am. She was going to meet us at a cool brunch spot afterward. Turns out she wasn't working at all that day. She was getting our mom from the airport. Best surprise I've gotten! 

We had brunch together then spent a good portion of the day at the Denver Botanical Gardens. Dinner at an AMAZING spot in the city, then we said goodbye. It was pretty teary, but it was so fantastic to have our family all together in one place before I go halfway across the globe (something that doesn't happen too often).

Time to spend some more time with the sis. Woo!

It's all happening!

Hey! I'm really glad you're reading my blog. I don't really expect people to follow it, but a few dozen people already viewed blogpost #1. That's pretty cool! I basically started it so I would have something to look back on, without expectation that others would read it. So thanks for that. If you would like to help me out a bit, you can click HERE to help me get a bike (definitely used) when I arrive there, find a place to live, or offset the cost of my (stupidly expensive) one way plane ticket. Anything and everything helps and is greatly appreciated. Maybe pass the link along? Thanks!
Alright. On to BLOG POST #2!

Two weeks.
Two weeks.
TWO WEEKS(!).

Okay. This is starting to freak me out a little. I leave for New Zealand in just two weeks. I can genuinely say that I did not see myself in this position when I graduated this past May. Many of my tentative plans fell through during the past few months of my life, much to my chagrin. Getting a visa for New Zealand was not on my plate until very recently. And now I'm moving half way across the world in less than a month. Yeesh.

Before I graduated, I started to look for a bunch of jobs that would give me some experience in the outdoors (if you couldn't tell yet, nature and the outdoors are some of my biggest passions in life. I adore hiking and camping. It just feels right). I applied to a bunch of National Parks around the U.S. for various positions. Most were seasonal work, some were permanent positions. Anything to get my foot in the door. I have a bunch of personal experience doing solo camping, group camping, trip planning, etc. Problem is that most outdoors jobs only take professional experience seriously (or require different certifications which cost a canoe full of $$$). So the last few months of college were dotted by various application denials, bouts of moody pouting, and drinking delicious craft Wisconsin beers in greater amount and at greater speed than should be done. Having no idea what to do next, I switched from part time to full time at the coffee shop where I worked, so that I would at least have some more time to figure out what the heck to do next. That was an alright decision. Had a great time serving coffee at the EC Farmers Market three days out of the week. Highlight of the whole summer though was being able to go to Eaux Claires Music Festival with some of the greatest people alive.
File under: Top 10 Life Experiences.

Devan, Kristi, Emily, Taylor and me @Doomtree. #yoursquadgoals

(Roman and Adam were MIA)

But living there mostly felt like stagnation. Maybe it's a character flaw, maybe it's due to reading too many books about different places, but if I'm in single place for a while I start to feel trapped. Don't get me wrong, Eau Claire has many great things to offer. I had just been there too long.

The whole summer I was admittedly less active in my search for future endeavors than I should have been. Every once in a while I would make a google search for things like, "outdoor jobs in the western U.S.", "hiking guide jobs", and "after college life". Nothing really came of it though. It felt shitty not knowing what my life was going to be about once my lease was up at the end of August. Paraphrasing Steinbeck, this was the summer of my discontent.

Fast forward to about two months ago, I was starting to figure out the obvious: if I stayed in the U.S., I'd have to wait another year til next summer to get pretty much any job in the National Parks. Cue new wellspring of anxiety. Magic computation machine to the rescue. Through the voodoo of the internets I found this weird thing called a working holiday visa. 
My internal dialogue went as such: Huh. This visa thing sounds pretty cool. I've always wanted to go to New Zealand. Wait. If I do this it'll be the end of spring/start of summer, so I won't have to wait to try to get an outdoor job. Doesn't cost anything to apply? Eh, might as well.

And that was that. I don't think I even made a decision to do it. My mind only slowly caught up with what happened. I'm moving to New Zealand on a whim. That's how all big life decisions should be made right? ...right?

The thing is... I'm terrified. This kind of stress was pretty normal since the end of college. I thought that would go away once I new where I'd be going or what I'd be doing. But no. And I think that's a good thing. It's motivation to boldly go. There's something wildly energizing about throwing myself into the void, not knowing what will happen. Comfort is not worth much to me. Everything will work out in the end. 

As the great Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen said, "adventure is just bad planning"*.




*Alternatively, "it's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to".

I will take it! I will take the Ring to Mordor!

I'm moving to New Zealand. So, that's something.

...wait, what?!
YES! That's happening. A few days ago I got an email (from the FUTURE*) saying that my visa application had just been approved! I have what's called a "working holiday visa" that gives me a year to live in New Zealand from the day I arrive. Now I just have the very small task of 1.) landing a job, 2.) choosing a city, 3.) finding housing, 4.) hanging out with my sis in CO before I leave, and 5.) somehow trekking it out to CA, from where I will leave the USA and finally embark on my journey to go to the Land Down Under-er. Let's see what happens.

Now that's out of the way, it's background time.

Name: Joseph Martin Danger Melheim
Birthday: February 3rd, 1993
Hometown: Stillwater, MN, USA, Earth, Milky Way, Virgo Supercluster
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 0.077 tonnes
Eyes: Blue as the sea after a storm
Hair: Dirty blonde, and growing strong since September, 2014
Languages spoken: English, Spanish, Sarcasm
Motto: "Adventure is just bad planning"
Lifetime goal: Steal the Declaration of Independence

Ok. You know some junk about me. And since I'm not leaving quite yet, I'll leave out the why til closer to my departure. The remainder of this, my inaugural post, will be dedicated to something loosely associated with the land of the Kiwi but tightly associated with the nerd who's making this blog: the Lord of the Rings.

Without a doubt, LOTR and the various other books written by the late, great J.R.R. Tolkien are my favorite things in the entire universe. So far, these are the tallies for the amount of times I've read (or listened to) them:

The Children of Húrin - 1
The Silmarillion - 3
The Hobbit - 6
The Fellowship of the Ring - 12
The Two Towers - 14
The Return of the King - 13
I can't even count how many times I've seen the movies (theatrical or extended editions). It would just take too much time to do the math.

Yes, the Two Towers is my favorite of the main trilogy. No, I didn't understand or follow the Silmarillion the first two times I read it. Yes, I find daily connections between Lord of the Rings and real life as well as make copious amounts of references. No, you probably can't convince me that there's anything better on this earth than what the good professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien put forth through his mastery of the English language, though I am open to challenge. No year of mine is complete without at least one more read through of the main series or a binging of each of the extended movies (neither of which are limited to one more round). I have plans for at least two LOTR themed tattoos.  And last year for Halloween (and lets be honest, many days lounging at home), I was dressed as Frodo Baggins**.

Lord of the Rings is simply the most thoroughly thought out, meticulously conceptualized, and fully realized worlds I have ever been in contact with in literature. There is a reason almost every piece of fantasy takes inspiration from this series and is, at one time or another, compared to it. Tolkien is, and will forever remain, at the pinnacle of his craft. There is nothing in this life that can make me lose myself more in thought and fantasy more than the grandiose and wonder filled world of the pieces of perfection that make up the Lord of the Rings. And to be honest, LOTR definitely played a bigger part in my decision to move to New Zealand than I should probably admit...

Now that LOTR is on my mind and I don't want to use up all of my material, I'm going to go read some of the Silmarillion, drink some tea, and take a nap. Peace!

If you want to help me move half way across the world (which is probably exactly as expensive as you might think), hop over to my fundmytravel page, here. Anything is appreciated! Every little bit helps!

Peace, Love & Happiness,
Joseph

P.S. Yes, I am absolutely bringing the One Ring to New Zealand Middle Earth with me.

*New Zealand is 17 hours ahead of MN, across the international dateline. Meaning I'm time traveling to the future! So, I'll let you guys know if the world ends before you get word. It's the least I can do.
**A costume I made, by the way...