JRRZZ Blog

Yes, they’re online. You can find them on my new photo dump page, photo.jrrzz.net, which is an enhanced/hacked version of scry by yours truly. It even rotates photos automatically now based on the camera gyro’s EXIF data.

Most photos are completely left intact, straight from the camera. Others are merely cropped and rotated a bit. I’ve been having serious color (pink clouds, artifacts) issues with UFRaw and CR2s my Canon EOS 50D produces. Luckily most photos are pretty well lit, so retouching wasn’t really needed anyway.

I’m back from my trip to New Zealand. As usual, it’s been great. I’ll post the photos online as soon as I’ve got them sorted out. Some need some retouching and stuff. I’ve shot 24GB worth of photos, so I’ll upload only a selection.

I do have some video material of the bungy and skydive jumps.

Oi, I guess you guys haven’t noticed, but I’m really not at work right now. Mkay?

But look on the bright side. The weather’s really nice over here. I’m not sweating my ass off anymore. Snow!

I’ll upload the photographic proof whenever I get home again, which will take at least a few weeks.

Just like last year, me and my brother will be off to New Zealand. Kiwis are addictive.

I’m not going to write out the entire schedule like last time (hey, I’m lazy), but I’ll just describe what we’re going to do to ensure our probable demise.

We’ll leave next Sunday, July 26th. We’re relying on public transport during our entire trip, so public transport’s going to bring us to Frankfurt (Germany) where our plane is said to leave. We’re paying our eastern neighbors a visit because of our own stupid Dutch government, who thought it might be a great idea to tax flying from the Netherlands into the ultra-expensive do-not-want category. Anyway, we’ll stop at Singapore and Sidney for a breather before landing at Christchurch International Airport.

After a bit of sleep at the airport’s hotel we’ll catch a domestic flight to Queenstown. It should provide us with some amazing views over the southern alps. We won’t throw half-eaten carcasses down this time. Last time one sheep half got stuck in the engine, spraying kebab all over an area of twenty square kilometers. Local authorities were not amused.

In Queenstown we’re going to finish the job we started last year. We’ve done the Auckland bridge jump, but there are three more jumps in the Queenstown area to complete. It’s going to rule. After three days of bungy jumping we’ll take another shot at skydiving. Let’s just hope not another hurricane shows up to throw soot in our dinner (I love Dutch expressions).

After a nice long weekend of doing absolutely nothing, we’ve got a little expedition to Fox Glacier planned. We’ll try to get to the top of Mount Fox, which shouldn’t be that extremely hard. For the people who still think it’s dangerous, rest assured. I’ll bring bandages this time.

After this bit of physical exercise we’ll need another weekend off. Come on, it’s a holiday, we’re not going to work out all of a sudden.

To absolutely top this trip, we’ll take part in a nice five day cruise from Dusky to Doubtful sound. The boat has an engine of it’s own, so we can sit back and relax during the whole voyage. It’s going to be cool. There’s a chance we’ll meet some penguins and dolphins too. I’ll bring a plane manual for if I see three cute ‘n cuddly penguins.

The last activity we’ve got planned is a photography tour through the Glenorchy area. They say we can shoot some really nice pictures and animals out there.

After another few slow days we’ll head back to Christchurch, where the Aussies will fly us home again. We’ll be back in the Netherlands on August the 20th. 34 hours later. Ugh.

I’ve got some really neat stuff planned for my next visit to New Zealand. The epitome of neatness will be to check whether gravity still works. I kind of hope it still does, actually. Anyway, to make this trip a bit more interesting a total of four jumps have been confirmed thanks to my new Kiwi friends. A jump a day, taking it easy.

The first jump will be a 43m jump off of the Kawarau bridge. It’s the place where bungy jumping was born. It’s just a jump I have to make for history’s sake. Here’s a video of a fellow Dutch tourist dedicating her jump to her grandparents. I know, don’t mind the music.

The second jump will be a bit cooler than the first. It’s a structure suspended 400m over Queenstown with a runway inside. You can run out of it with the cord attached to your waist. And best of all, you can even jump in the dark. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do, but it’ll be fun. This guy does a flip of some sort.

The third jump is even better. It’s a 134m drop from a pod above the Nevis river, hanging in mid air, attached to some cables. They say it’s a 8.5s ground rush. I can’t wait. I just had to share this video. Now I can’t possibly chicken out. They have to do something about the awful music though.

The fourth and final jump will be 4572m deep, or 15.000ft if you prefer. The 65s ground rush will be like no other. My bucket list is getting shorter and shorter. No, of course it won’t be a bungy jump. It’ll be a sky dive from an awesome airplane with teeth. Really!

As you might have noticed, I’ve survived New Zealand. I’m going back next year to try to kill myself again. In order to make sure I won’t survive this trip I’ll jump off of even more bridges, out of an airplane and paddle over some rivers. Also, I’ll be trying a little bit longer. I’ve scheduled an extra week of self mutilation attempts to make sure there’s absolutely no chance of survival whatsoever. To minimize the survival chance to an ultimate low I’ll be flying with Quantas Airlines, heh.

Okay, the dates. I’ll be staying in New Zealand from 2009-07-28 until 2009-08-19. Almost three weeks of “fun”.

Oh, I almost forgot, the motto for this trip will be a great Otep quote:

The last time I died, wasn’t nearly this much fun!

I’ve posted the best stuff on DA.

Backpackers Dream by ~jorrizza on deviantART

Of course I’ve made some photos. Two panoramas too, definitely worth checking out.

You can view them here.

And here’s a video of me jumping off a bridge in Auckland.

For three weeks. I might look dead to most of you. But rest assured, even if I’m dead I will come back to haunt you. If I’m not, well, I don’t feel like quoting the terminator.

Yes, that would be the eleventh of August. You’ve got that right. Be proud of yourself.