It seems our time in New Plymouth is drawing to a close. Colin and I have been here for a while and I think we have got our fill of surfing. We actually only tried to surf the past two days and between the two of us I don't think we caught one wave! I can't speak for Colin, but I know that I was more interested in trying not to drown than shooting the curl! It turns out that I really suck at surfing, especially on a short board. I actually knew that, but in Santa Cruz at least I had a chance! In California (every time I have surfed) the waves come in sets, so you actually have some calm time to paddle out. Not here. Here if you don't know how to deal with breaking waves on the way out you are screwed, and because of lack of technique and endurance I never even got myself into a good position! I have never had so much trouble paddling out before, or swallowed so much sea water! Seriously. Yesterday I almost puked while still in the water, waves crashing overhead, rain pouring down; me looking like an ass-hole. It was great fun.

For various reasons, Colin and I have decided to move on, mostly because Clarissa is leaving and New Plymouth won't be the same without her. That and we are losing our place to stay! So, yesterday we booked passage on the Sunday evening ferry to the south island and we are taking off. Although surfing did not work out as well as hoped, I will miss this town and especially staying here with Clarissa. She has been great to Colin and I, she basically let us take over her house, providing not only all that comes with a house, but also lively conversation and of course, superb friendship. I will be sad to go.

The plan is to hit Paynes Ford immediately to do some climbing (something I am good at!) until Amy (my sister) comes in the beginning of January. We are also planning on doing some serious partying for new years, so there will be many more exciting stories to come! Until next time. . .

Finally some photos! Yay! Colin and I are now staying at our friend Clarissa's place, who allowed us the run of her house, including car, surfboard and computer! Thanks C-Love! So, for your viewing enjoyment and my sense of vanity and ego (vego?) I posted below just a few of my favorite photos of my wondrous adventures. Just click on the photos to see an enlarged view. Enjoy!

This is Josh, Clarissa and Blair, three great cats I met at Wharepapa and hijacked for the weekend. At the time of these picture posts, Colin and I are staying with Clarissa and plan on stealing Blair's surfboard in the near future. Other plans include making them take us climbing on Mt. Taranaki and being a general nuisance until they run us out of town! Thanks mates!

Snoopy getting ready for take-off at LAX and the following 12 hour flight to Auckland. Thanks PJ!

Waves for days in New Plymouth. There are great breaks every day somewhere along the coast, and they ain't small either!

Graffito in Auckland. This urban art could be the only good thing to come out of the shitty city. Unfortunately we did not have the friends or the money it would take to properly explore Auckland's urban underground scene and as a result we decided we did not like Auckland very much. Apparently, nobody else does either, except of course, the people that live there, which is only about a third of New Zealand's entire population.

More great Auckland graffito.

This is Erik and Elin, the Swedish couple I met, fell in love with and forced to hang out with me for a week and a half. Here they are seen soaking up some ever elusive sun at the Wharepapa campgrounds.

Another beautiful sunset, this time over Wharepapa South.

The greatest hot spring on earth!?! After I forced Erik and Elin to let me tag along to Taupo, we went to this free hot spring. It proved to be my only hot washing in a month!

Sunset over the Coromandel.

Snoopy onsite free soloing grade 28 at Froggatt Edge, Wharepapa South.

Adventure Brad himself making a run on the very bouldery short 26 (5.12a-c) "Totalling Your Dad's Car," Froggatt Edge. Yes Russ and Dave, I did eventually bag the red-point.

The sanctuary above Mana, the retreat Colin and Brady worked at after I left to go climb. I don't think Colin should be looking so sexy while at a sanctuary, but who can stop the guy?

The alarm clock at Reid's Farm, Lake Taupo. To many campers this guy was an interesting novelty, but coming from Kansas, I knew the terror within this beautifully plumed piece of crap. This dumb bird started crowing at 11:00 PM. It was all fun and games until 5:30 in the morning rolled around and he actually moved from site to site waking people up. I guess the rooster didn't understand Thanksgiving, because he hung around, and later we had a nice bird for Thanksgiving dinner! Just kidding. Or am I?

Brady still asleep, like always! On the beach in Whitianga, Coromandel. I'm pretty sure that to sleep on the beach is considered camping, which is technically illegal on the Coromandel Peninsula, but as Russ always says, "there ain't nothin' to it but to do it". We didn't get in trouble and got to wake up to this incredible sunrise. Brady missed it.

What I woke up to that morning! Seconds later the guy on the left caught a nice fish. Well, he said it was nice.

View of the Tasman Sea from partway up the mountain.


Well, it was not exactly the summit, but damn close! The smile here is genuine. I did a little free soloing over easy, yet icy terrain to gain this point, so later I became unhappy again facing the slick downclimb. Unfortunately, no picture of me peeing my pants is available. On a funny side note (speaking about peeing ones pants), I did attempt to relieve myself while on the top, and a sudden wind gust caused me to pee all over my leg. I laughed out loud before the wetness got cold, then it was not so funny anymore.

On the way up Taranaki. Although I look happy in this photo, I'm faking it. Well, I guess I was pretty happy to be standing still. At this point, the hike was only hard when I was moving. Its funny how hikes work out that way.

View of Mt. Taranaki from a viewpoint near New Plymouth.



The bottom of the snow line on Mt. Taranaki. Only 700 more meters to go!

Cathedral Cove, Coromandal

Wow, free internet! Well at least I think its free. . .I haven't been caught yet. . .

As the adventure continues, our hero Adventure Brad (AKA Captain Bad-Ass, AKA B squared sandwich on Double A Bread with a slice of C-yah (huh?)) finds himself on the West coast, in the shadow of a still active volcano, surrounded by surf beach and Tasman Sea. The town is known as New Plymouth, but A.B. knows its true name, "The Pompeii of NZ"!

I just wanted to give you a taste of chapter 5 of my new book, Adventure Brad and the Tale That Nobody Wants to Hear. That's not true, if you didn't want to hear, you wouldn't be reading this right now! Moving on. . .

After getting the car sorted out, I decided to pick up and head to stay with some friends in New Plymouth to get in some surfing and hopefully some mountain (volcano) climbing. As of now, I still have not reached my friend who is going to let me crash, so I have been sleeping in the car at a really nice surf beach. This town is a lot of fun; like Lawrence but on the sea with its own pet volcano. Called Mt. Taranaki, I'm pretty sure this is the place of "Mt. Doom" in The Lord of the Rings. Seriously though, there is a volcano here, an active volcano with a nice town nestled some 6 km from the base. . .not smart. The last eruption was 250 years ago, not a big one, but it still makes me want to yell "COME ON PEOPLE, YOU LIVE NEXT TO A FREAKING ACTIVE VOLCANO, HAVEN'T YOU HEARD OF POMPEII"! Hey, life is a gamble I guess, I just hope everyone has taken out active volcano insurance. It will probably go off and the insurance companies will claim the destruction was caused by the earthquakes caused by the active volcano, so their policy wont cover any damage. Did I mention this volcano is active? Anyway, in the spirit of utter stupidity, I decided to climb the active volcano. I was supposed to rock climb that day, but my partner got sick, so instead I made an attempt on the summit (a hike), some 2500 meters above sea level, which you can see from the summit if there are no clouds. The hike was god-awful; the view glorious; the summit not accessible. Not accessible that is, without crampons and ice axes, which I didn't have. Despite screaming blisters on both heels that formed within the first 30 minutes of setting off and the realization that the hike itself was utter crap, I made it almost all the way (~ 100 meters from the true summit), before it became too dangerous to continue. To put my tenacity in perspective, it took me around 6 hours to top out, part of which was hiked in my socks because my feet hurt so badly! Only Taranaki can inspire such ridiculousness! In the mountains defense, if I had the right equipment, I could have gone up a completely different way (up the snow line) which would have been much cooler. Oh well, now I can say I almost summited "Mount Doom". Yes Russ, I have now traveled to Mordor, and it is every bit as grueling as seen in the movie. Active volcano. Idiots.

Yesterday Colin met up with me after hitching from a more southern region and we are now traveling together again, this time in Adventure Brad's new chariot The Red Rocket. By the way, Chris the mechanics advice about starting it does not work, but I am getting used to the grouchy outbursts in the morning. For the next week or so we are still planning on sticking around to surf and generally beach it up and then head to the south island together to start climbing again. We are also hanging out with an awesome guy named Roy who I met under a street over-pass while he was practicing his singing! We talked for a while and in no time he offered me a place to stay, and today he took Colin and I out for lunch! He is a South American by birth who lives here with his two daughters and while working with social services, he is the lead vocalist in a band, among other wonderful talents . He is simply an amazing person I am lucky to have met.

I'm really excited about the coming days, because not only will I be surfing and climbing (two of my favorite things) I will be hanging with Colin (one of my favorite people) and other friends I have made here. Colin and I are both stoked about the south, me especially because I know I will get to meet back up with many of the incredible people I have met so far.

Until next time, always remember