THE END

.... i suppose that i should start from where i left off....

after Andy left, i spent a couple days in Brisbane with KTG, and also i saw S.C-S. + Louis (friends from highschool.... but i am so clever and not using their real names... anybody from KC knows exactly who i am talkin about though, right?). Then i left Brisbane and travelled up to Noosa for a few days
Then KTG arrived and the next day we left on a two day/three night Fraser Island tour.
Fraser Island is a really awesome island - the biggest sand island in the world, and it's actually a breadind ground for Tiger Sharks so you can't swim in the ocean there, but totally randomly (because of underwater springs or something) it has all of these fresh water lakes on the island, and they're so pretty and you can swim there). Anyways, the tour was cool and we got to see all kinds of neat stuff (including huge sand dunes, whales out in the ocean, awesome sunsets, and a kareoke DJ named Elvis), and we met some pretty cool people too.
Then we headed back to Noosa for one night, and my brother was there, so it was prety fun to see him again.
Then I headed up to Airlie Beach which i met up with a man who i'll call "B" and his family. B used to work with my dad, about 21 years ago.. when i was just a baby. and now he has three kids, all about my age. and they had rented a huge sailboat for a week in the Whitsunday Islands and they invited me to join them! which was pretty freaking cool. So i sailed around with them for about five days and it was absolutely amazing. and we went snorkelling a bunch of times, and holy crap it was the most amazing stuff that i have ever seen in my life... the weather was perfect and the coral was every colour and the fish blew my mind.
After that, i travelled up to Cairns where i met up with KTG again. We spend a day in a little market town called Kuranda. and that was cool. Then we went out on a sailboat to Green Island and I WENT SCUBA DIVING! YEEEAH!!! that's right! i faced my second biggest fear (going underwater) (my first biggest fear is going into some sort of cave, either a very small one, or one that is underwater... or one that is very small and underwater... eep *shiver*) and it was SO AWESOME!!!... the weather sucked major butt, so unfortunately the visibility underwater wasn't great. and also, i opted to go with the sailboat company because they offer a 1:2 ratio of instructor to diver (as opposed to 1:4 which is what the other companies offer, and i was SO NERVOUS), but unfortunately, this company didn't have the best dive site, so probably i didn't really see the best of the Great Barrier Reef. BUT i did see some Nemo fish hanging out in an anemone, so that is all that matters.
All it all, it was a pretty fantastic experience.
The next day i went a Cape Tribulation tour and it included the best lunch that i have ever eaten in my life, and a bunch of other stuff. and a river cruise on the Daintree River where we saw REAL LIVE WILD CROCODILES!!! so that was cool, for sure.
After that i came back here, to Noosa, where i am now. i really like it in noosa. When i was about 14 i saw a Lonely Planet thing about Australia, and one of the places featured in the show was Noosa. and ever since then i have wanted to come here. so i decided to spend my last few days hanging out on the beach here. and let me tell you, my tan is PERFECT. i am so proud of myself. it took a lot of focus, concentration, and persistance, but it has paid off.
and now i am coming home.
i take a bus to Brisbane today, and i will stay at B's house tonight, then tomorrow i fly to vancouver.
HOLY CRAP.

and so this is my last post... i know eh? very sad.
i am sad.
i feel as if i should do some kind of sum-up of my trip.
i feel like i should say something... some words.... some cheesy cheesy words...
....and so i will... so if you don't like cheese, then just skip down to the pictures and be done with it! but otherwise, read on.

I have learned that:
...Nicole is the best wife in the world.
...my mom really does have the answer to everything.
...if everything fits easily into my backpack, then i have left out something large and important.
...Chaco flip flops are the best footwear that money can buy.
...quick dry towels are good in a purely functional way, but otherwise i really hate them.
...when the whole world comes crashing down at my feet, it doesn't mean that i have to fall down too.
...grape picking is the best job.
...petrol is rediculously expensive.
...i have shit luck with weather.
...my Dad is a superhero.
...climate change is gonna be the end of us all, unless we do something about it NOW.
...I could never move away from Canada permanently because of four main things: My sister. My dog. My cottage. And Tim Horton's.
...i am completely dependent on the internet and modern technology to be happy.
...nobody is noticing me, they are all preoccupied thinking about themselves, just like me.
...everybody poops.
and so much more.

but for now. that's it. I'll be seein you all very soon hopefully. August is gonna be a really crazy month, but hopefully i get the chance to see everybody in Kingston. And I'll see some of you UVic people in the next couple days, and the rest of you in September. Thanks for stickin with me and for posting your comments. They always really meant a lot to me.
I leave you with some pics from the last three weeks...



lake breneer (no idea how to spell that) on fraser island



me and KTG and a cool ship wreck thing on fraser island (wreck? reck? reack? no idea)



the view from a lookout point in the Whitsundays, looking out over Whitehaven beach... so gorgeous



the mast of our boat, Spike, silhouetted in the sunset... *sigh*



ME! SCUBA DIVING! YEAH!



this clam was seriously like four feet across. so cool.



cool fish and cool coral stuff



NEMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE TOKEN POST

ok so i'm pretty sure that absolutely nobody reads this anymore
but i feel like i should post anyways
the token post

pictures? good idea.
cept my battery died a couple days ago.... and since we were livin out of a van i couldn't charge it.... so all the good pictures are on andy's camera
... but oh well
here's a couple random ones anyways...


this is andy. on a big rock. in the blue mountains. you can't really tell in this pic, but behind him is all these cliffs and ridges and cool stuff and it's all a hazy blue colour... and it's called The Blue Mountains. pretty clever, eh?




this is andy eating a banana. and behind him IS OUR VAN!! YEEEAH. that's the lil' kitchen part of the van. beware of the lil ants that like to hang out in the lil cooler that is in the lil kitchen. i love our van. it will be missed.




there are no words




this is a sunset. reflecting off our van. it was very neat.




Australia Zoo! yeeeah! ... i miss Steve Irwin.


so anyways
i take andy to the airport in about an hour
that will suck
then i am hangin out in brisbane for a couple days, then up to Noosa, then me and KTG (friend from uvic) are doin a three day Fraser Island thingy that is gonna be SO COOL! yeeeah
then i dunno after that

peace out homeslices

PENLESS

hello everybody!
i came to the internet with very honourable and studious intentions of finally figuring out what classes i need to register for...
but alas, i didn't bring a pen
so that idea died

and so i am updating my blog! where to begin... ahhh yes....

at the start

so i have been here in perth for about ten days now and it has been pretty crazy. i took over the rez room next door to my brother and it felt really weird to be back in a place like that... but with no studying to do and no laptop on my desk... and considerably less stuff than there has ever been in my room before.

we have done all kinds of things since i got here
we rented a car with some of andrew's friends and drove up north to see "the Pinnacles" which are these hundreds of rock formations that just stick straight up out of the sandy desert. and its pretty neat. but also very not G rated if you know what i mean (imagine 7 foot tall rock cylinders sticking straight up everywhere and looking like... ummm... yeah)

so that was cool. then we went to a fast food place for dinner called "nando's" and holy moly they have the best veggie burgers in the whole universe

then the next day i went with a couple of andrew's friends to a national park and we saw a whole bunch of kangaroos hopping around and some koala bears up high sleeping in trees. holy moly koala bears are cute as they unconciously cling for dear life to swaying trees.

the next day andrew took me around to see all of the beaches that he surfs and hangs out at. the coast line here is just one big huge long white sandy beach and its gorgeous. and we saw this sunset that lasted about an hour and it was cool.

ummm also one day i explored a sortof suburb area just outside of perth on the coast called Freemantle... except that basically i was having a Stupid Alie Day and so instead of exploring i just spent three hours getting lost over and over again. but it was cool anyways.

then another day, andrew and i went exploring around King's Park (this huge awesome park between downtown perth and UWA) and downtown perth.

and another day we went to visit some of our parent's friends who have a summer house place in Mandurah (a town south of Perth) and instead of a backyard, their house has a boat and a river and the river is connected to this entire river circuit thing and then out into the ocean. so we all got on their boat and they drove us (IN THE BOAT!) into town and parked the boat and we went out for lunch... it was pretty neat. i wish i had a boat and a river and an ocean in my back yard.

then another day andrew and i drove south and went camping at Margaret River. it is a super cool surfer town that is very pretty. and we went to a couple wineries and a chocolate factory and a bunch of different Subways.

then another day we took a ferry over to Rottnest Island..... which is a really hard place to explain... it's like a holiday/resort island that is all run by the same company basically (The Rottnest Island Authority) and it is basically its own little universe. there are roads on the island but the only vehicles are official ones (like, a shuttle bus, a tour bus, a police jeep, and a delivery van - you can't take your own car over). and there is a little grocery store, and a little cafe and a little Subway and a little gift shop. and there is a hostel and a couple up scale hotels/lodges and then a million cabins that you can rent out. and andrew was there with his friends back on a weekend in the summer and he said that the entire island was full and totally booked up. but when we were there, there was only like two other people... and it was so creepy and haunted! but also very gorgeous during the day. we rented bikes and rode around the entire island, and went swimming in the Indian Ocean and it was all white sand and turquoisey water and so so pretty. and at night these animals called Quokkas come out and basically take over the entire island. and they look like huge giant rats. except their faces are pretty cute and their tails are like a foot long and an inch thick. and they hop around like mini kangaroos. and they are just so weird. but also kinda cute.
anyways

other than that... i have spent a lot of time on the internet (cause i can log in as andrew, and so it's free!), a lot of time wandering around, and a lot of time planning the rest of my trip.

in answer to sparkle's question: i will be back in canada on July 28th! YEY! so soon! ... shit i can't wait. i know it is silly, but actually i am pretty ready to get home. but these next five weeks will go by quickly i'm sure. so anyways, i'll be in victoria searching for a house/apartment for a couple days, then i get back to ontario on the first of august and i'll go up to the cottage with the cousins, and then i think i get back to kingston around like the 4th or the 6th of august. YAHOO! .... seriously... i'm actually pretty stoked.

but before then, there is much to be done and lots to explore.

tomorrow i fly to melbourne and i'll be there for a few days, then i go to sydney for a couple days, then ANDY COMES!!! YAHOO!!! and we are gonna rent a van and drive to brisbane. and then andy leaves (not so yahoo) and then i will explore from brisbane up to cairns on my own (and hopefully meat up with some friends along the way, including MIM!), then back down to brisbane to fly home!

so anyways
thats basically it
i'm pretty tired... and i still have to go find a pen and figure out all my classes
... so i should go...
blaaah

SEE YOU ALL SOON!

GOODBYE ENN ZED

ok so i am too completely exhausted and jet lagged and a little bit sick and mostly just weak and tired to actually write anything of significance...
but i couldn't let this day go by unmarked

i am in Australia now.
yup
a whole different country
a whole different ocean
a whole different accent to embarass myself with by not being able to understand at all

and i miss NZ
and i miss Mim
and i miss Andy

but right now, mostly i am just happy to be with m' big brother Andrew

nuff said

PEE ESS

i just noticed that my blog was still in Pacific Standard Time

silly me

so i have now changed it to New Zealand Standard Time

so basically, i am blogging to you from the future

lucky you

LOYAL, BROKE, AND HAPPY.

i have a loyal customer card for this internet place
every time that i spend more than three dollars here (over 20mins) i get a stamp
very soon, i will get ONE FREE HOUR OF INTERNET
woot woot
good thing that i am so loyal

travelling alone is not nearly as awful as i thought it would be...

although, apparently nicole was a vital factor in me managing to maintain my daily spending budget. because, somehow, over the past week, i haven't bought ANY groceries (i am surviving of toast - which expired two days ago, but hasn't yet moulded -, plain oatmeal - which is disgusting -, and the generosity of my new friends in christchurch - who i already owe big time), i haven't travelled much (only about six hours in the car - so only a tank and a half of petrol), i've been staying at really cheep places, AND I HAVE BEEN OVER BUDGET EVERY DAY!?!?!?!?!? i can't handle not having nicole here to be like "don't spend money on that,spend money on this", "buy coffee now, make your own lunch today", etc
without her, i don't eat, i just buy funny hats that i don't need.

though... in my defense... it is the coolest hat in the world.

anyways, i'll start from where i left off:
after i left Mim in blenheim, i headed south towards christchurch
and by the time i got to kaikoura, i was pretty tired

so i stopped there for a night
and played some crazy card games with two americans and a kiwi
...it was pretty nice to bust out some serious Napolean Dynamite jokes after four months of completely Pedro-free living (ND is apparently a very north-american thing, since nobody else that we have met here really knows what it is. or they do but they are like "oooh yeeah... that movie.... was it supposed to be funny?")

then, on their suggestion (the americans and the kiwi. not Napolean and Pedro.), i went to Akaroa for two nights (and sortof got lost in christchurch on my way there - HOLY BIG CITY).
and it was pretty much the cutests little town in the world
AND I SAW DOPHINS! YEEEAH!!! for the first time ever not in the West Ed mall! i went a cruising thing and we saw penguins (swimming penguins! not just waddling penguins) and dolphins and sea lions. very cool.
then i went to see a movie at the cinema ALL BY MYSELF! (how mature am i?) and it was weird cause i was actually the only person there... good movie though - called "Notes on a Scandal" very intense

then i came to christchurch on friday. and i didn't get lost at all on my way in to town. and i went about plastering up car posters and chatting with strangers and checking out markets and galleries and museums and just generally being independent and snazzy and wearing my new hat. and i ate a falafel (which my mom has always been trying to peer-pressure me into eating, but i never gave in... until yesterday ... and lo and behold: mom is right again. falafels are yummy... and the only veggie option on the market menu, apparently)
and also, in line for the falafels, i met a canadian girl and her german friend and we went to the botanical gardens to explore, and then to see a movie called "The Lives of Others" which has german subtitles and is therefore extremely confusing but was SO AWESOME. so obviously, mom was double right: falafels aren't just yummy - they also get you new friends, and educational german entertainment.

then this morning i took my car to a car fair and I SOLD IT! woot woot!
i got ripped off in an awful way, BUT I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT ANYMORE!
...and also i feel very homeless and like my best friend just sailed to japan or something. i miss her. oh me oh my. BUT I AM SO RELIEVED. i am no longer a car owner. i will, however, be spending the next month and a half sitting in a cardboard box somewhere in australia. Cause i didn't get enough money from the car sale to actually really travel around there. oh well. win some, lose some. it was totally worth it. i don't regret buying a car at all (despite the pain in the neck that it all was)... it was, by far, the absolute best way to see this country.

anyways
now i am just bummin around with nothin to do and thoroughly enjoying myself and looking forward to Thursday when ANDY IS COMMIN TO CHRISTCHURCH! hooray!
and i can see buskers out the window, in cathedral square. and they are on tall unicycles. and they have big green juggly things. and there is obviously a HUGE hilarious fall potential factor. so i must go. definetly don't wanna miss this.

ciao

SAD DAY

today is a sad day
thursday was also a sad day
tomorrow will be an even more sad day

my time in NZ is quickly coming to an end and i waver between devastation, excitement, and an overwhelming desire to just go home.

Andy left on a bus from Picton on thursday and I miss him.
I stayed in Picton for a couple more nights and now i am back in Blenheim to say goodbye to Mim.
woooah
i don't want to say goodbye to Mim.

I leave for Auz in two weeks and I'm basically pretty scared of being in such a huge country with no Nicole and no car. I'm crazy excited to see Andrew (brother) but nervous for after I leave him and am off to fend for myself for a month. I know i'll be fine, but I'm just scared. Being on my own will take some getting used to, and I'm just not there yet.

Hopefully Nicole and I will meet up for a while in Auz sometime in the next couple of months, but still, our real time travelling together is actually over. Theoretically, it was over a week ago when I left with Andy, but this time I actually have to say goodbye to her.
my wife, Nicole.
oh me oh my
she is at work right now and i am wasting time and getting things done. which seems like a contradiction, but somehow that's just the way it is
and trying to make it through a huge Subway craving
which i know that i will give in to as soon as i leave here
I Love Subway

PROMISE KEPT

pictures! yey! cept that the battery on my camera is dead so the only pics i have to choose from are from Andy's camera...not that it really makes a difference... but yeah... so here are a bunch of pictures of me looking like a goon in a variety of different settings

this is me in a cave thing that went through the bottom of a huge boulder on a totally deserted beach... it was pretty cool. caves are scary. that rock woulda been some pretty fantastic bouldering too, by the way.



me in a wee lil kayak in waikawa bay. my hamstrings are so tight from my silly back that i couldn't straighten my legs... pretty funny actually.



sunset at pohara beach
blew my mind



me on a beach
being protected from sandflies by the super-german-yellow-bottle-stuff that nicole and i found in a hostel a few weeks ago. it has a picture of a fly on it so we figured it must be sandfly repellant. it smells funny but seems to work well. hopefully it doesn't kill me. but yeah. anyways. me on a beach. right before we got totally pissed on by a rain storm that flooded half the towns in NZ.



me and andy. not such a flattering picture. but i like how it looks like we are moving REALLY REALLY quickly to the right. i have no idea why. probably i was moving the camera really really quickly to the left. oops.



me eating the most absolutely-fantastic-holy-moly-blew-my-mind-amazing veggie and pumpkin-kumara hummus sandwich. i could work for subway. no no wait, i could REINVENT subway. while sumultaneously putting them out of business. oh and this is in kaiteriteri, by the way.

ok so those are kinda lame but it's not my fault
i blame my camera. and the camera battery company.

ok i have nothing to say
peace out

I'LL POST PICS IN A COUPLE DAYS. MAYBE.

ok so yes, i have been a very neglectful blogger
i had very very good intentions to update about a week ago when we were in Wanaka, but for some reason blogger kept coming up in chinese and i spent a good twenty minutes trying to make it english but no dice. and i am just not so good at figuring out how to translate chinese, so i gave up

but alas, now i am back

when did a last post? Hokitika? oh boy that was a while ago

ok so after Hokitika, we went to Lake Tekapo, in a desperate and SUCCESSFUL attempt to escape the rain
it was very lovely there
then we went to Oamaru AND WE SAW PENGUINS!!! YES!!! PENGUINS!!! tons and tons of penguins! i think they are my new favourite animals. we saw yellow eyed penguins which were neat, but my favourites were the blue penguins. they are the smallest penguins in the world, growing up to 30cm tall. and we watched them come up onto the shore after a long day of hunting, then they all waddled up to their nests. and it was pretty hilarious because half of them take naps on their way from the water to their nests. like, they just stop waddling and fall asleep standing up. then three minutes later: waddle waddle again.
so funny

then we went to Dunedin and i bought to shoes (Garmont Negevis woot woot!) in an attempt to cure my toe problem... which is weird and probably caused by too much hiking in crappy shoes. but it's fixed now!

then we went to Port Chalmers which was very nice

then we drove through the Catlins (also very nice) to Invercargill (not so nice) then up to Queenstown where we met up with friends from Blenheim and partied like it was 1999.

then we went to milford sound and did a kayak trip that kinda wasn't so cool cause it was so windy we had to head in really early. but the drive there and back was actually the most awesome thing ever

then we went to wanaka where apparently blogger.com is in chinese

then we went to franz josef and we went hiking on the glacier for a day! and i don't like snow and i don't really like hiking and i really don't like going up. but alas, i found Hiking Up Snow to be extremely fun. who woulda thought?

then we drove up the west coast to greymouth and picked up our friend Andy from Blenheim (ok so he's not FROM blenheim, but that's where we met him) and we (and by we, i mean nicole. i was official dj. andy was official music critic) drove all the way back to blenheim in one day. and there we had a small blenheim reunion. or, as Jork called it, a "Blenheim Revival". and it was so much fun to see everybody and have another sushi night. but also it was really strange because we were back in our old house and some of the people were the same but the rest of the people were totally different people and they just weren't so cool and they were pretty anti social and it was like "hey, who are you? why are you in MY house?"
cept it's not my house. it's just a hostel
oh well
and now nicole is still there and she is working again for the same dude that we worked for before

and i left with Andy and we drove back up to golden bay (where nicole and i went about three weeks ago) and we stayed in Pohara and saw a kickbutt sunset and went back to Cape Farewell. and now we are in Picton. today we went kayaking on malborough sounds in the little 7 foot free kayaks at the hostel that we are staying in and it was pretty sweet and hilarious and very different from paddling long sea kayaks like i am used to. but fun too. and we hung out on some people's dock for a while but the house looked closed up so probably they didn't mind since they don't know. oooooo such a reble, i am.

anyways
andy gets on the bus tomorrow (from here, picton - such is why we are here) to go tour the south island and i'm gonna go back to blenheim to see nicole for a day or two (holy moly i miss her so much right now. it's so weird not being with her every day. this is the longest that we have been apart in four months.... i feel like i have been divorced or something) then after that i'm gonna head to Christchurch cause i gotta sell m'car before i head out to Perth, Auz on the 10th of June

anybody wanna buy a car?

THE COLONOSCOPY

ok so i am trying to upload these pictures
AND IT'S NOT WORKING
and this computer ate my blank CD
i officially hate this computer
I'll try again at the next place we go to.

Nicole, however, did somehow manage to get a bunch of pics up - so check out her blog to see more of Blenheim, etc

as for me, i got these two EXTREMLY SPECTACULAR ones up before the whole thing went downhill...



a bunch of us at the top of Mt Vernon
ooooooh aaaaaah



I baked! Yes! I did! Well... sortof. but whatever, they were delicious. (cinnamon buns)


i got sommore good un's.... i'll try again in a coupla days maybe

WOOT WOOT

it's picture time again
which is exciting like christmas
but unpleasant like a colonoscopy
especially on this computer which i think was built in 1804
and reminds me a bit of my car
funny noises, odd smells, sputters and shakes
guzzles money like there is no tomorrow

right now we are in Hokitika
and i'm pretty sure that every time i write that, i rearrange the consonants and mix up the vowels
Hitokika? Hakokiti? something.
It's on the west coast of the South Island AND IT STOPPED RAINING TODAY!
and holy moly the clouds lifted, and much to my surprise: there are mountains here! just a little ways over there! big snowy peaks! and further south they get bigger and bigger and closer and closer to the sea and i'm pretty freakin stoked for heading down that way
which will happen soon
not tomorrow
but probably the next day

it's gonna be cold further south but it's ok cause we bought mits and scarves so we are all set
not to mention, tremendously stylish

ok this computer is taking FOREVER.
i will post pics tomorrow
hopefully
g'night

OFF WE GO AGAIN

whoa it has been a while since i last posted
i wonder if anybody still reading this?.... besides you, Jenny.

either way,
better just pick up where i left off:
so we ended up staying in Blenheim for about 3.5 weeks... which is the longest that i have been in any one place since i left kingston mid-January.
and apparently it was the best time ever
there isn't that much to actually WRITE about it... mostly i did very low-key things; worked, watch TV, played PS2, worked, went for walks along the river and up a big hill thing, worked, drank Tui, played pool (i still suck), worked, ate other peoples' fabulour cooking/baking, did laundry (FOR FREE!!!), shopped at the warehouse (NZ's Wal-Mart), spent a lotta time at New World (the grocery store), worked, and basically just took 'er easy.

Grape picking is definetly one of my favourite jobs ever;
it payed pretty well, it was outside, there was ZERO responsability involved, i didn't have to talk to any whiney customers/clients, i got to listen to my ipod all day, i got a tan, and basically it was kinda fun. (cept on bad days when it was too sunny and hot, or the grapes were rotten and stinky and made me gag hardcore)

i got the car fixed and it doesn't shake anymore.
it still smells like burning and makes a horrible grinding/honking noise when you turn, but IT DOESN'T SHAKE! woot woot.

we made some great friends too... not sure what to say since some of them might be reading this (Andy- go away) and that would be awkward. but we lived and worked with cool people and it was really nice to settle down in one place and actually get to know people.

i miss blenheim, but also i am stoked about the rest of our trip -
since we left blenheim a couple days ago, we've explored Golden Bay and Cape Farewell pretty thouroughly but then, sadly, my huge awesome fantastic kayaking plans have been sacked due to crazy rain. so we are in Nelson now. gonna wait out the rain then do some hiking in the Able Tasman National Park and hopefully some kayaking around Kaiteriteri (quite possibly the most gorgeous place in the world... but not when it's cold and raining)

ok so i hate people who whine about the weather.

so i will stop now

i don't really have much else to say
i could babble about blenheim all day, but the truth is - part of the reason that i loved it was for it's normalcy... and that's not exactly blog-worthy.

i hope that everybody who just went through exams didn't have an absolutely horrible time and that you are all looking forward to, and enjoying the beginning of, your summer!

CLEVERLY DISGUISED AS A HAPPY GRAPE PICKER

yup
i have a job now
me and mim are grape pickers
it's pretty straight forward
we have these things called "snips"
which are very sharp scissors
and we cut grapes off of vines and try not to cut our own fingers off
and we listen to our ipods
and sometimes we play our own version of Twenty Questions
which is called: Infinity Questions
a great game
cept it makes me frustrated and angry a lot so sometimes mim refuses to play anymore
it's all very intense

we live in Blenheim... which is basically a hole surrounded by vinyards... not so cool... but we are working all day so that is fine

and today we got a flat tire on the way home from work
and it was raining
and we were driving three strangers home from work
so this guy named "Austin" (american, yes) helped us to change it
or perhaps i should say that we helped him
as you all know, i am really not in to gender stereotyping and the like, but when it comes to things like flat tires, power tools and big trucks, if there is a boy around, then girls: you best just step aside and offer snacks

but anyways

the car also needs new "plugs" because there is something wrong with two of the "cylinders"
as you can tell by my well places quotation marks, i know stinkall about cars
but i do know where the mechanic lives and i will be droppin it off there in a coupla hours
woot woot
hopefully it will make it

it shakes like crazy when you turn it on
sometimes it shakes to the beat of the music that we are playing
those are happy times

anyways
work is actually not so bad
except for sometimes when it is insanely hot and we are hungry and thirsty and we are being rushed and we cut our own fingers
that is uncool
but the rest of the time it is nice to be workin outside and it's nice to have the least amount of responsability possible while still being paid
and we live in a hostel that is sortof just a house with a whole bunch of other vinyard workers (some who work for the same company as us) and so that is snazzy cause they are fun people
harvest season ends pretty soon though
so then we will be back on the road (hopefully) and off to explore the South Island and hopefully have enough money to not have to find more work again

but we'll see

i don't have much else to say
we've mostly just been working lately
and eating peanut butter and jan
and some snazzy carrot/orange/chickpea salad thing that mim made and that, by all normal logical calculations, should have tasted like poo but actually it was the most amazing salad i've ever had
mim should be on iron chef

perhaps someday there will be a competition that involves nascar driving AND iron chefing.... mim would CLEAN UP.

right thats it
glad you all enjoyed the "pig" so much

koh - it's definetly gonna be my desktop background when i get home too
(MILLIONS of pictures of beautiful scenery, fun times, great drives, mountains, sunsets, sunrises and all the wonders of the world, ONE picture of an ugly pig... and the PIG wins that desktop competition)

i have nothing else to say
see ya

PICTURES AGAIN

ok everybody
read RJ's comments on my last post
then go vote for his team/crew/group/....thinger
whatever
it's actually hilarious
the scenes in what i assume is the cluster quad with the bunnies and then the ones in clerihue/cornette(?) in the elevator with the retro orange and brown walls are especially funny
not to mention rj's wonderful performance

anywho


we are in wellington now and holy moly it is awesome here!
i love this city!
Mim's sister left on sunday and so now there are only two again
but it's ok
cause we gotta get jobs soon
we are gonna head to the south island tomorrow
if i manage to get around to booking the ferry today
and then find work
because apparently i am a hardcore shopper now and that is bad because i also need to feed myself and provide a roof over my head for sleeping
it's all very stressful
but anyways

here are some pictures!! YEY!!! PICTURES!!!
they are in no particular order, by the way

also - check out the link to mim's blog, cause she's got more pics up there too, i think.



view at the beginning of the descent of the Tongariro Crossing



me, mim, some statues, excessive symetry, and a lack of flash
(at a mt vic lookout point)



meet Milo
he falls over a lot
despite the duct tape on his bottom



boiling mud
wwwwoooooahhh!



Milo did a face dive
and that is my PB&J sandwich
the XL Booty of m'car is also a road-side dining room table



me on the ascent up the Tongariro Crossing
taking pictures of each other was a good excuse to stop going up and regain consciousness/ability to breathe
(i realize that this pictures is sideways, but this computer basically breaks in two everytime that i try to rotate a pictures... thus... you will just have to use your imagination)



i really hope that there is another UVIC clothing pic competition when i get back to school
that is me lookin out at some volcanos that are on the ring of fire (so is vancouver/van island!)
it was so windy i had to tie my touque on, lest it fly away



sunset on our last night in Raglan



a pig!
yes, a pig!
that looks like a dog.



me and Mim's sister in the playground in Raglan
and some palm trees, too.



me in Raglan at the surfing beach... which was currently experiencing Gael Force Winds (gale? gael? i have no idea)



me and mim and some cows



me feeding some chickens
in a barn
i'm a little bit country.



me and more cows.
i love cows.

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE

hello superstars!

it has been a while since i posted
ok
recap

last you heard i was jumping out of planes in Taupo, yes?
k, well... after that we came to Rotarua and spent alot of money doing cool touristy things.
then we went Wwoofing at this really cool place between Hamilton and Auckland.
then we went to Auckland for one night and picked up Mim's sister (who shall hence forth be known as Em) who flew in to visit for her spring break.
woot woot.
then, the three of us drove to Raglan with the intention of becoming hardcore surfers.
unfourtunately, most of NZ was attacked by gale force winds and torrential rainstorms, so actually we spent a lot of time hangin out in our cool hostel, talking to sad surfers, playing cards and scrabble, reading, and basically not being hardcore surfers.
so we left there after only two nights. which is too bad, cause it definetly had potential to be the coolest place yet.

then we went to Waitomo and we did a black water rafting tour.
which was completely awesome. first we got dressed up in horrid damp wetsuits and purple pants and a harness with a very cool repelling device that i'd never seen before, and a helmet with a light on it. then we repelled down into this cave and walked through glow worm caves for a couple hours. and in certain places you get in a little black tube and lazy river through the caves. and it's very dark and scary but also you can see around you since the glow worms are so bright. then, there were these two little tiny off-shoot caves and our guide was like "if you want and extra challenge, try to crawl through there".

here i should mention that i have a pretty intense fear (verging on phobia) of being in small spaces where there is water and darkness. i can handle MRIs, but tiny rock caves and some little dutch man telling me "yeah you might fit through" is just not my thing. but you only live once, right? so i crawled throught the first one and got stuck pretty permanently near the end and my heart rate was up around the 250 mark because i was so scared and there was a lot of wiggling and nervous laughter and then i was free! yeeah! it was like being born. litterally. then there was another little cave and the beginning of it was underwater. and that almost made me poop my wetsuit. but i did it anyways. and it was bigger so it wasn't so bad. kinda cool actually. heart rate still pretty high though.

so anyways
that was pretty cool.
i'm all about the "face your fears, you only live once" deal
apparently.
and also the "i'm never gonna see anybody here every again so who cares if i make a huge ass of myself?" slogan factors in to a lot of my decisions.

anyways, then at the end of the caves we climbed out of the cave and that was pretty cool too. climbing in rubber boots and a wetsuit up slippery limestone is surprisingly more challenging that most other climbing that i've done. but pretty cool.
and the guide was using one of those Petzle D belay devices... or whatever they are called... those new cool ones that can hold ropes that are only like 9mm thick, i think. so that was neat to see, cause i'd never seen one before except in magazines.

then the next day we came back to rotarua because i had some unfinished business with the moutain biking trails here, and Em wanted to come here too cause it's a pretty cool city. despite its pervasive and absolutely disgusting stench of sulfur.

you see, the first time we were here i really wanted to try the biking because i'd heard that this place has some of the best trails in the world. but i totally chickend out because biking on my own scared me a lil bit and it was raining just enough that i was able to convince myself that it wouldn't be fun. then (last time we were here) on our last night here i met this guy who has travelled all around new zeland on his own for five months with a station wagon and his mountain bike and i was so jealous.

so again, i had a "face my fears" moment.
and yesterday morning i rented a bike for a couple hours and i hit those trails so hard they didn't know what'd hit them.
it was AWESOME. there is this absolutely enormous network of trails south of Rotarua. i could have spend DAYS in there. but alas, i only had two hours. which was still enough to get pretty substantially lost about four times and meet a lot of local kiwi bikers who were able to tell me exactly where i was. and eat a banana. and figure out the map! but then still get lost again.
definetly i like biking on my own... it wasn't nearly as lonely as i thought it would be. and i didn't fall down and break anything and have to wait for strangers to save me. and i didn't have to try to keep up! i went so slow! it was so cool!

anyways
then we went white water rafting in the afternoon. and we were supposed to be there at 3:30 but we turned on highway 36 instead of 33 and didn't realize it for a long time. and it was sortof mim's fault because she was driving and sortof my fault because i was the official navigator and i was napping and when she said "this one here??" and pointed at the sign i was like "zzzzzzzzzzzyeahzzzzzzzzz" because i assumed that she was pointing at a 33 instead of a 36. i blame her. she blames me. really it was hilarious. we called them from the road to explain and they were so nice and basically just made fun of us the whole time but didn't get mad at all. even though we were 20 minutes late and held up A LOT of people.

ps. mim should drive nascars. holy moly she is good.

rafting was pretty fun though. we went over the highest commercially raftable waterfall in the world, 21 ft. i think that's pretty cool. and i didn't fall out. and we didn't flip. and also, it involved another lovely wetsuit/helmet combination. which i think is definetly my best look.

then i had some pretty hardcore intentions to do some pretty hilarious st patty's day celebrating, but alas, i passed out on the couch at 8pm due to total body exhaustion and partying with strangers just didn't seem too appealing.
all in all, it was a pretty fantastic day.
today we are headed down towards Tongariro National Park and tomorrow we are gonna do The Crossing (this eight hour hike that is apparently a "don't miss").
so hopefully that is cool and we don't die or fall into the volcano or anything.

anyways
i have naught much else to say

EXCEPT THAT
holy moly wanna hear something weird?
so, at home, where you are, daylight savings time just began, yes? well here, it just ended. SO, now for me to figure out the time where you are: kingston is ADD EIGHT HOURS, SUBTRACT A DAY, and victoria is ADD FIVE HOURS, SUBTRACT A DAY. which means that the time difference is actually LESS, but the inconvenience of phone calling is actually MORE. it's all very strange and confusing, i think.
but anyways

i don't have anything else to say
and i need to pack
and it's 7:30am so the kitchen is open now
and i'm STARVING
and oh my we need to book our hostel for tonight.
oops. forgot to do that.

and so i go now
you really should all post comments because:
a)i am curious to know who all is reading this
b)it does wonders for my self-worth

ciao

MY CALLING

i went skydiving yesterday
it was by far the coolest thing that i have ever done
i am thinking of doing it for a living
probably skydiving school is cheeper than university


(and i had every intention of posting pictures because:
a)i look like a goon in all of them
b)my instructor guy was actually the best looking guy in this country
c)the contrast between my gooness and his gorgeousness is pretty funny
but, alas, it will not work)

PICTURES YEEEAH

k so
these are in no particular order
but i am feeling really dedicated so i am even gonna put captions (ooo ahhh)
and i just read a sign (after uploading all these pics to this computer) that says "uploading more than 20 megabytes of photos will incur an extra charge of 10 cents per megabyte"
and i have no idea how big a megabyte is
so it is entirely possible that i'm gonna walk outta this internet cafe in about 20 minutes and owe the guy with the big glasses and the mumbly accent that i can't understand to save my life my first born child
lets hope not
k here goes:
this is a random sampling of pics from the past 5.5 weeks



me simming in the little river down the path from the house where we wwoofed - it was straight outta the lord of the rings - so awesome



me and mim sittin part way up the north head in davenport... i am pretty sure that i'm only pointing for effect ... otherwise i probly woulda taken a picture of whatever was so cool that i felt the need to point at it



somewhere along the East Cape drive... this is one of about a billion pictures that i took from the car while mim drove... most of them are pretty lame but this one is cool... also, please note that this highway is the craziest highway ever and there are parts where it is only ONE LANE (as in, only one lane... not one lane for each direction of traffic... but just ONE LANE) and the speed limit doesn't actually officially go down from 100



sunset in Whitianga



Buffalo beach in whitianga... our hostel was right on this beach... and there was this big window right in front of our beds... so when we woke up, this is exactly what we were looking at (cept from higher up and a lil further back)



we are so mature (at Cape Reinga)



kayaking in Paihia
(again with the maturity)



our very own farm house... please note the ugly red granny car in from of it because I OWN THAT!!! YEEEEEEAHHH!!! THAT IS MY CAR!!!! WOOT WOOT



the "historic Tolaga Bay wharf"... somewhere along the east cape drive... it is the longest wharf in the world... or nz.... or something.... it was cool... and i think that it should be used for the next ANTM finale runway.... oh yeeeah



somewhere along the little 25km dirt road to the east cape lighthouse



me! in my car! not driving.
but instead, being very adult.
and taking pictures of myself in the mirror.
yup.



sunrise from hicks bay (very close to east cape - which is the "eastermost place in the world"... as in... closest to the dateline... as in, the first place where the sun rises)(had we been more hardcore (and not totally running out of gas in the middle of nothing where the closest gas pump is only open on like alternate saturdays and cost $1.70/L), we woulda actually driven to the east cape to watch the sunrise)



me and mim near huka falls
please note my snazzy yellow hairband that i got ON SALE for only two dollars and i think it makes me look like a local
yeeeeah!


k i have nothing left to say
we leave Taupo and head to Rotarua tomorrow
then more Wwoofing! (but at a place with animals and kids... instead of old people and gardens.... should be interesting)

ciao

EAST CAPE YEEEEEAH

hey dudes
the car is still goin strong
i am such an adult
even if nicole drives it the most cause she is better at that
but whatever

cept just as we were driving in to Napier yesterday it started to smell like burning

so actually i am looking in to car mechanics right now

anybody know of any good ones in the Napier/Hastings region?

anyways
my internet time is gonna run out really soon

we drove around the east cape
it was amazing

left Tauronga, went to Whakatane, spent a night there, then spent a night and this very strange place in Hick's Bay
then two nights at the coolest place ever in Morere
and we basically had this entire old farmhouse to ourselves
and it was so awesome
but so creepy at night

then we came here
and i don't like the hostel that we are in
but we are sharing our room with three boys from Texas
err.... three MEN from texas

i find it strange that everybody, when you as them where they are from, they say their country.
except for americans, who always name their state
nicole pointed this out
it's very strange
and probably a vast over-generalization too, but so far it's true

ok i gotta go now
time is runnin out
and i have little interesting to say

cept, Sparkle: yes yes i figured. but also you are bitter because i busted out "cocquroch" (which can totally be spelled with a "qu") over two triple word scores. go me.

i go now
cioa

ALIE'S BIG DAY

ok so
where to start
it's been a while since my last post

today was a HUGE day for me
absolutely HUGE
but i'll get to that later
must go in order

we left auckland and went to Whitianga for four nights
if you're Moari or just plain hardcore, you can pronounce Whitianga as "Fi-tee-ahn-ga"
our bus driver was just plain hardcore

so anyways
Whitianga was pretty nice
we stayed in a hostel that was right on Buffalo Beach and so spent a lot of time reading and just gazing out at the ocean
we rented a car one day and drove around to Hot Water Beach (which was crazy busy and kindof a let down... except that we found this one spot where you could bury your feet into the sand and feel that the sand/water about a foot down was SO HOT... pretty cool), and Cathedral Cove which was AMAZING. and there were these HUGE waves and we swan and i had some major knocked on my butt, thrown around, will-i-ever-come-up-for-air moments. it was the best wavey ocean swimming i've ever experienced.
then i was supposed to spend one day on a kayaking trip around mercury bay but for some reason it was cancelled... but i didn't find out until i'd already taken a ferry across this river with my New German Friend.
so she and I just wandered around instead
and we saw donkeys
and turkeys
and horses
and cows
and baby cows
and sheep
and some crazy beaches
and hiked up some cliffs
and met some old Kiwi ladies
and it was basically the most random day ever

then after Whitianga, we went Wwoofing near Thames
and it was pretty much the funniest four days ever
we lived in a little "caravan" (like a campervan thinger) on the property of this really really old kiwi couple
and they were so nice and so hilarious an always fighting in that old couple way
and basically we think that the only reason why they are wwoofers is cause the lady wants people to talk to
she basically kept up a constant narrative ALL THE TIME
and so sometimes you were part of the "conversation" but sometimes she wasn't even in the same room but she was still talking
mostly we just smiled and nodded a lot
and the husband was so funny and very deaf and i spent the whole first day RACKING MY BRAIN to figure out where on earth i know him from...
....who does he look like???
a "Guess Who?" character? yes, of course... but that's not it
a Rahl Dahl drawing? ...sortof...
BUT, then at dinner, I FIGURED IT OUT:



wait for it

TREEBEARD

holy moly he was EXACTLY like Treebeard from the Lord of the Rings
everything from the way he looked, his features, his mannerisms
it was absolutely uncanny
i almost pooped my pants when i realized it
then i told Mim later when we were back in our CARAVAN and we laughed for like four hours
he was a pretty cool guy though too. he has a degree in pretty much every subject, including anthropology. so he was giving me all kinds of ideas for my thesis. thanks dude.

but anyways
we fed chickens (err... "choocks"), repotted trees, carried brush and weeded gardens, and helped with the cooking
mostly we didn't actually have to work that much
and they grow all their own fruits and vegetables so it was pretty much the best food i've ever had in my life

but anyways
now we are in Tauranga
and if you pronounce that how it's spelled then people will look at you like you are a nob
you have to pronounce it in a really exagerated "TOW-rrrrrrrron-ga" way. and roll the r.
so funny

anyways
so we have been hanging out here for a while
and then TODAY I HAD MY BIG DAY!!!!!

here is what is so big about it
1. i bought a tankini swim suit thing
it's the first time since i was like six that i've owned a REAL normal human being bathing suit. and i am actually gonna wear it. crazy things DO happen. it's very nice and black and simple and i need to do some serious tanning before i can wear it without a paper bag on my head
2. I BOUGHT A CAR!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEAH THAT'S RIGHT!!!!
it's a 93 mazda clef (four door sedan) and it's dark red. and it's the biggest ugliest hunk of junk in the world. but the AA checked it out and it only needs a couple service repairs and otherwise they said that it's a fine car SO I BOUGHT IT. i got it from the friendliest car dealer at all. and he didn't radiate any slimeyness.
you see... i decided while we were it Whitianga that i wanted a car. i got to looking at maps of all the places that i wanted to go and i realized that it just isn't conceivable to do it by bus. it's slow and it hurts my back and it means that we just don't have access to a lot of cool places. also, i hate schedules, remember?
SO
i had this major confused-alie-what-am-i-doing-with-my-life-do-i-really-want-a-car moment/day
and i called m' mom n dad
and i decided to buy one

so then when we got here, post-wwoofing, i started looking. and i was getting stressed out and not finding anything and beginning a major freak out. so then i just MARCHED (you shoulda seen the marching) into this car dealership and i was like
"do you have any cheep cars?"
amd the guy was like "how cheep?"
and i was like "fifteen hundred dollars"
and he was like "ummm well... no, but i have this trade it... but it's about 2500"
and so i looked at it
and it wasn't cool or cute or lovely like any other car i'd ever seen
and it was ugly and big
and everybody kept saying to get a car from Turner's auctions
but that was so confusing and i couldn't figure it out

then i had another confused-alie-what-am-i-doing-with-my-life-do-i-really-want-a-car-and-where-should-i-get-it-from moment

and then i decided that i wanted it
and i am not cool or cute or lovely so why does my car need to be?
i am solid and functional and rounded around the edges
and so that is what my car should be

so then i marched back
and i LIED
and i said:
"well... i've seen some other cars that are a lot cheeper but not quite as nice, but they do have less mileage on them. but i like this one. but i really don't want to pay over 1500"
(TRUTH: i hadn't seen any other cars even close to as good or as cheap. i was willing to pay around 3000 to just GET SOMETHING THAT I LIKED)
and so i convince him to give it to me for 2000
(though, of course, he was probly lying too, and so he was still ripping me off, but not by as much, so it's ok) (also, we was like the nicest person in the world)
so i said i wouldn't buy it till the AA checked it out
so he set up the appointment for the car for me
so then i went down there today after it was done and got the report (cept first we went to the WRONG place, another car service place really far away and we walked there and it was so hot and sunny and then i realized it was the wrong place once we were there buy the guy there was so nice and got the girl who works there and drives people around (like after they drop their cars off to be repaired) to drive us to the right place... even though we weren't even his customers or anything)
and when we got there, the mechanic man was so nice
(i've decided that Kiwi's are the friendliest people in the world)
and he said that it needed a few service stuff - oil things, but not urgently and the engine was good and everything else was fine.

SO I BOUGHT IT

yeeeeeeeeeeah i did!

i am SUCH an adult

i own my own car

yes i do

and it's red

and i want to name it, but that is something somewhat un-adult

and i can't come up with anything even remotely good or clever

but anyways

so we are gonna drive away tomorrow morning

not sure where we are going exactly

but it doesnt matter because we have a car!

yeeeeah!


ok so
i have not much else to say
and my time is about to run out
and i haven't emailed my parents yet

check ya lata skatas

BOOURNS

k so
sad news
i can't get the pictures to work
apparently this computer just can't handle my outstanding photography
i guess i will try again in a couple weeks... or... sometime... when there is cheep/free computer access again

but, i DID add a link to nicole's travel blog... just over there to the right
i take no responsabilites for discrepancies between the two :P
we are leaving here (auckland) super early tomorrow morning
and heading up the coromandel penninsula (still dunno the spelling of that)
we're gonna stay in a place (that i can't spell or pronounce) near Hot Water Beach for four nights and then we are gonna WWOOF at a place near Thames! yeeeeah.
i am stoked for that but actually nervous as stink too
but not as nervous as when i actually had to make the phone call to the place
eep
(ummmm i can't be bothered to explain wwoofing right now.... google it if you care, it's pretty neat i think... but we'll see)

after that i dunno
so
i bid you all adieu

i got a new watch today and it's a huge piece of garbage
oh well
it was very cheep
and it'll do a fine job of preserving my watch tan, if nothing else

feelin a lil' homesick right now
jenny, i miss you
must stay busy
time to cook dinner/read/watch the news with that guy over there

hasta luego

I MISS PAIHIA

k so
i am a tool
it's "Kaitaia", as in "kay-tay-a"
whatever
either way it was pretty much just a part of the highway where there is stuff that isn't fields with sheep
but the hostel we stayed in was snazz
as was the trip up to the Cape
bad weather though, torrential tropical downpours
crazy lightening storms
SO COOL

AND WE DID LAUNDRY!!! YEEEEEAH

then we went back to Paihia for three nights
and it was wonderful
and we made lots of new friends
then we had to leave this morning and i am sad
and i miss paihia and the argentinians and the quebec guy and the cute blond british guy ((it is weird here how you get to know people and where they are from and why/for how long/since when they are in NZ, and what they are cooking, and where they worked and what they do all day, etc etc, but the whole Name Exchange thing just doesn't happen)) ((mostly Mim and I just call people by their hometowns/countries.... or in the case of cute blond british guy, i come up with fitting descriptions))
but oh well
must keep truckin

we are back in auckland now and we are staying in a hostel in Parnell which is like a district of auckland that is just beside the CBD, but not actually IN it... very trendy... i will never be upwardly mobile enough to fit in here... but i am ok with that (ps they say "CBD" here instead of "downtown")
the big hostels downtown (like where we stayed last time we were here) are fine but kinda scary, impersonal and institutional
BUT, this place where we are now..... it is like.... oh how can i describe it.... it is like a Queen's Ghetto House that has been decorated by a kindergarted class on an LSD trip. there is just no other way to describe it.
funny story: when we got it here it was kinda late so the office was closed
so mim is wandering arond with her backpack that is like seven times the size of her
and i am there trying to wheel my painintheass over these rocks and this boardwalk thinger
trying to figure out where we are supposed to go
then this guy (who has been watching us wander around and being all "this way?" "i dunno, that way?" "i dunno, down here?" "i dunno, over there?") who is sitting in this little door thing inside the hostel is like
"oh, to check in... call this number"
and we are like "suuuure ok yes... we have no phone"
and the guy is like "use this phone"
and so i phone the number and the same guy who i made the booking for this place with is like "ok go inside, go all the way to the back until you find a yellow fridge. inside the yellow fridge is a roll of tape, and inside that is a key. that's the key to your room. room 2."
and i just like "ok, for sure dude", thinking: that makes so little sense that i actually think he must be serious, cause you can't make stuff like that up
and sure enough, three yellowish fridges later, THERE'S OUR KEY

then we went for dinner at a snazzy indian place where the waiter kept mummbling and talking to me like he was saying earth-shatteringly important things and my head was actually a door knob instead of a head.
and again, we debated and probably failed the Proper-Way-To-Go-About-Paying Test (ask for the bill? go up to the cash? ask for the bill then pay at the cash? tip? no tip? how big of a tip? so many unknowns)
but the food was good
and then we searched for a supermarket but found every single other store in the world instead
so we shall be having left-over indian food for breakfast
but at least we know where to go shopping after that
fine by me

and now we are sitting here, indulging in tea, pods (the best candy ever), and FREE INTERNET
HOLY CRAP
EMAIL ME!!!

and there is a huge stereo on the other side of the wall from where i am sitting and sometimes it is pumping "Faithless" which is pretty much the best backgroundmusicband this century, so i am happy

cept speaking of music: my ipod has DIED
in a tragic, horrendous, scarring incident whereby it was plugged into a socket which delivered TWICE the voltage to which it was accustomed
i take no responsability for this
(really, it's not my fault, the little plugger-in thing says it can handle up to 240 volts... but apperently not)
there is an apple store just up the street so i think i will take it there tomorrow and see if they can nurse it back to health
it has done this flashy broken thing before and i can't remember how i fixed it, but i remember it being easy
.... but just incase, who would like to donate to the "Alie Needs A New Ipod" fund? mom? dad? jen? friends? collegues?

ok there was something else horrendously important that i was gonna bust out here but i totally forget what it is

but if you think that means that i will leave you alone, then you are sadly mistaken

i am reading Alias Grace now and NOBODY EVER TOLD ME THAT IT TAKES PLACE IN KINGSTON!?!?!
it's so weird. nothing cool ever takes place in kingston!
and this one part, the guy is describing the "bleak flat look" of wolf island and how he has to see it from his office and i am like "yup i feel ya... guess what the Hinn faces?"

but anyways
we are here for three nights then we're gonna go check out the coromandel peninsula (which i have OBVIOUSLY spelled wrong and which i am not even gonna TRY to pronounce)
where we will spend even more time on beaches and being lazy and reading books

BUT we are both getting slightly weird feelings from not DOING/LEARNING/HANDING IN anything ever... so we are gonna buy a "teach yourself spanish" book tomorrow
and learn spanish
....basically, we are PURPOSEFULLY forcing ourselves to learn as if in school... who woulda thunk it?

ok my tea is cold and i still haven't even emailed The Jenny

probably i will post again soon cause there is still that thing that i am totally forgetting that i wanted to mention, and also: FREE INTERNET

OH WAIT I REMEMBER:

1. are you still a vegetarian?

YUP. so far so good. and Mim is too, so the grocery shopping/eating out is very straight forward

2. what is the time change?

ummmmm ok to figure out home, i ADD 6 hours, then subtract a day. to figure out Vic, i ADD 3 hours, then subtract a day. so ummm... just flip that around.... sounds easy eh? eh? eh? for someone who moves through timezones a lot, i am surprisingly inept at doing the conversions.

3. could you please buy like three replacement watches and set them to all the different time zones like watch 1) auckland, watch 2) kingston, watch 3) victoria?

could you please pay for them? that would actually really help me out. cause apparently i really suck at adding 3 or 6 hours and then subtracting a day. and just think of the triple watch tan i could have!


...and yes, i will post pictures... and maybe even soon... i have only taken like 7 thousand so far.... maybe while i am here actually... cause remember: FREE INTERNET!

g'night e'rybody

SUNTANNED AND SMILING

ok so
that last post was laaaame
i didn't even spell Paihia right
oops
oh well
sorry bout that

anyways
we are in paIhia now and it is absolutely AWESOME here
it's so sunny and warm and lovely
and nobody wears shoes much, just sunscreen and hats
and everybody is friendly and tanned
AND ME TOO!
i have pretty much the best tan ever
and my watch broke today cause i wore it snorkelling, and holy moly watch tan!
it's so pretty and clear and defined
i love watch tans
and i miss my watch
how will i know when to do my embarassing back excercises???

so anyways
we've done all kinds of touristy stuff here
such as lying on a plethora of different beaches
kayaking all day yesterday
sailing trip, with some swimming and some snorkeling, today
and a lot of just chillin around our hostel here, which is the coolest place that i have ever stayed
the rooms are these cute little cabiney rooms with only five beds and they are clean and colourful and smell really good
and the kitchen is this big room attached to a tv room that opens right up to outside and the doors are always open, cept at night
and there is this little shady courtyard with lawn chairs and a bbq
and there are a whole bunch of argentinian boys here who have been here for a couple weeks and have jobs and basically live here
and they are so friendly and their english is so weird because it is new zealand accents on top of argentinian accents
speaking of accents:
i basically am totally incapable of understanding people with non-North American accents
it's terribly embarassing
i can't even understand the kiwi guy that owns this place, or a scottish guy who talked to me when he saw my mtb shirt
and i was talking to some italians who are staying here and i had to get them to repeat everything (but in my defence, their english wasn't great in general... but still)
and then on top of that, there are lots of non-english-first-language people who have learned english here, so they have Kiwi accents on top of foreign accents
and basically, when they talk, Mim and I are like "ummmmm yes..... ok.... yes sure"
cause i seriously can't understand a thing
it's very embarassing

but anyways
enough about that

i saw my first preying mantis in the shower on wednesday! SO COOL!

and i have the silliest little sunburns
cause basically if you don't put sunscreen ALL OVER (Charles would have this totally under control), any little bit that you miss (ex: the insides of your ears, your hairline, your knuckles, your toes, your ankles, etc) gets buuuuurned
and then there is me who burned my fingers cooking dinner last week
and they are still peeling
haw haw haw

anywho
tomorrow we are leaving here and going up to Kataia (which is pronounced "Ka-tay-a" - which i was not told until having said "Ka-ta-ya-hee-a" about twelve times)
just for two nights
we're gonna take a tour up to Cape Reinga, which is where the Pacific ocean and the Tasman sea meet
i think
or something like that
the most northern tip of NZ
apparently their is a light house there
oooooo
aaaaahhhh

ok
must go
me and mim are drinkin tea and reading our books at the picnic table ouside the kitchen
and internet here costs a small fortune
just a small one, though
ciao for now
(i hate it when people say that)