The Most Interesting Man in the World

My first day in New Zealand went really well. I got a ride to the airport from a friend I worked with in Manly who was also going to the airport. So I was able to avoid the ferry and the train (and the 25 dollars it costs.) Thanks again Bentely!

View the plane

Everything went smoothly with the flight and after sleeping for 3 hours I landed in Queenstown. Geoff, my couchsurfing host picked me up from the airport.

View from Geoff's house looking at Queenstown 

View looking the other way

During the 5 minute ride to Geoff's house he told me a little about himself and also that he had another couchsurfer staying with him, a girl named Steffi. During the day Geoff told me a number interesting facts about himself, like he is world ranked in Ironman Triathlons. He is still doing them at 53. While he was training I was able to go for a beautiful walk along Lake Wakatipu and I dip my feet in water... it's freezing.

In the afternoon Steffi and I went for a drive to Glenorchy. Glenorchy is a small settlement at the northern end of Lake Wakatip. The drive was amazing.

Lookout point during the drive

From Glenorchy 

Over dinner Geoff told us a little more about himself and I couldnt help but think about those Dos Equis ads about the most interesting man in the world. I think Geoff might actually be him. I'm really considering writing a Wikipedia page for him because I'm disappointed he doesn't have one.

Here are just a couple interesting facts about Geoff: he was the private secretary to Prime Minister of NZ for 10 years, he set up his own successful consulting business, he had an online tax-return service which he sold for a rumored $11 million, he owned Mt. Cook Alpine Salmon and a couple other businesses. He wrote a love song that was hit a couple years ago in NZ (complete with really cheesy terrible video). He also attended dinner at Nelson Mandela's house and apparently after dinner Mandela sang and danced for everyone. This is in addition to his medal from The Queen (of England... I assume).

Some of these things he didn't even tell me, I had to Google him... I honestly couldn't tell if he bragging or just telling stories about his life. I guess it's hard not to sound braggy when you have done everything he has. If you are wondering if he was creepy at all-- at first no but then he kept telling stories about 20 something year old women that wanted to sleep him (and of course how he wanted to sleep with them as well).... This gave me a better understanding of why he hosts so many 20 something year old women couchsurfers...

On another note his house is awesome and I only stayed in the apartment upstairs. His house downstairs has three bedrooms, a pool, and an amazing view. He rents it out for between $450-700 a day. He doesn't work besides training for Ironmans because he makes enough money renting his house (and I suspect that he had enough money from all the businesses he has owned). 

View from the master bedroom --I cleaned those windows

Here is an article about him.

Hope everyone is doing great! More on Queenstown soon!