Taranaki, New Plymouth

Just about a week ago I went to explore more of the country I am in. It has been a while since I actually got some good hikes in, even though New Zealand is basically a country where one of the only things to do it hike! For a good reason, this place is very good lookin'. We stayed in a holiday park on Fitzroy Beach which is a local surf beach. It's got black sand, lots of magnificent flowers and grasses lining the shore, and so much drift wood! To the South there are these big rock formations standing and right before them is a loading dock for cargo ships (very natural oohh ahh). Towards the inland there is Mount Taranaki or as the British would call it Mt Egmont, which to me sounds much less fun. I will continue to call it by it's given Maori name. It is one heck of a volcano, but also elusive and shy. It spikes up out of the sea-level land very suddenly and constantly hides itself behind pesky clouds. If it isn't doing that it is wearing a cloud hat, so I have never seen the full mountain, but I have seen a good majority of it. Around the base of the mountain there are some really really great hiking tracks. And a side note, the roads around the mountain are great as well, get your Top Gear on and drive away!

The first part of the hike we did was through dense tropical forest. If you are a plant lover, then you really should be walking around these forest. I went with 3 other people who are crazy about plants and must spend time identifying every single plant they see. It is entertainment for hours.... if you are VERY into plants. If you are like me you can just enjoy how intensely green everything is and imagine what New Zealand looked like all over the land before the lovely British colonists came and cut down and farmed most of the land. Keep in mind, through Maori history they burned down some forests to catch the birds that they would eat, but their fires did not as much damage as the colonists did. Even now, farmers still refuse to have ANY trees on their lands, and are constantly cutting them down. So walks like this are even more important because who knows how long that will continue if people keep expanding and chopping.

History lesson over! Thanks for looking, enjoy the photos and have a radical day!

The hidden Mountain

Tree sculpture on our way to the Pools

Dawson Falls

South Korea, Seoul, Busan, Uijeongbu

Hello friends!

I haven't posted again in a long time. I was finishing the school year and going on this AMAZING trip that I saved up for! I met some radical friends at school and we all saved up and decided to go to South Korea at the end of the year. I was there for three weeks in total, and all of the weeks were completely fantastic. It was a dream come true to meet fellow minded people and take a journey like this.

I will post some photos and some captions underneath of where the flip the picture shows and what we did there.

As you can see the trees were spectacular. It got cold in the second week though, so they quickly faded and their leaves crumpled up and fell off the tree. 

The poles were all covered like this. Unsure why...

Bridge to town in Uinjeongbu

A man hole!

The small rivers have these cool stepping stones across!

Subway!

What was a bit weird flying into Seoul was seeing all these housing developments. They cluttered the land like a beehive and look very strange from above. If you want you can google map Uijeongbu and see them just rising out of the ground on the satellite version, it's quite a sight!

Subway station was good lookin'

First stop in Seoul City! Merry Christmas!

This guy just sit outside a palace and carves these amazing wood blocks. Look at the tiger in the back!

Royal Courtroom

I enjoyed this photo a lot. It's exactly the embodiment of Korea: very traditional, but so advanced. 

The King's throne room

Seoul Art Museum entrance

This was just painful on the eyes

Royal walking ceremony...?

Ever exotic! Dunkin donuts!

The National Museum of South Korea. These museums were larger than life. This picture only gets about 1/4 of the museum in the picture. Walking up I have never felt smaller in my life. The war memorial was the same thing, such large structures....

Entrance to the War Memeorial

Graffiti

These dudes litter the streets! So many little scooter men with lots of goods!

Two of my friends standing on the rocks, crossing the rivers!

A village in the middle of Seoul!

Kitchen

Bedroom. The square pillow is an arm pillow FYI. That was my biggest question when it came to the bedroom. 

Kimchi urns!

One thing I witnessed was that Koreans sleep EVERYWHERE. On any public transport they are asleep. And in the parks they just sleep on benches. There were three other people at this park that were sleeping like this. 

The pizza in Korea is not good. Shrimp, 4 cheeses, and honey........ NOT OK. 

Firm up your bits ladies. 

Namsang tower!!!

The view of just one little section of Seoul

Who knows why Colorado made it onto the window but hurray! 

No caption needed. 

The infamous BBQ!!!!!!!! SO SO SO SO SO SO GOOD 

King Sejong who was the coolest cat out there. He made the Korean language what it is today, making a written language and easily spoken language so that all people, royal or not, could write, read, and speak the same. GO DUDE. 

This is the entrance to his palace. 

His throne.

The entertainment building

This is our pension in Busan! THE VIEW WAS CRAZY. But Busan is one of the coldest places I have ever been....

The Zodiac

Seaside temple

Meeting a god

views of busan

Observatory views

 View from the Observatory in Busan.

OKAY THIS IS GREAT FOR A LAUGH. 19 years ago, a monk came to this cafe and said there was "too much female energy" so the owners compensated by doing this. It is so amazing and so hysterical. It mostly is filled with old ladies who eat there, and the only people who work there are old ladies. I got two penis key chains for being a foreigner and going there. Actually really good food!

This was in the bathroom. 

The tree festival in a tiny town an hour away from Seoul. It had big fluffy snow flakes! It was very christmas.

Ice game real strong

The lights are in a place called Herb World 

Random Dinosaurs

BBQ Korean corn candy!

The infamous hike....

The start

Getting snowier as we got higher

Temple entrance halfway up

More snow....

The top!

More red trees as a finale.... 

Thanks for looking through all these photos!!!! If you want to see it up close, I think you can click on the image and it will get larger! Have a radical day!!!