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