The past 17 days

I'm going to start off by apologizing for the length of this post, I have a lot of catching up to do.

Let's work backwards. Today I am in Whangarei, New Zealand. It's a town of about 40,000 people, with about 120,000 when you add the suburbs. It's in Northland, which--you guessed it--is the northern section of the North Island. I arrived by thumb about half an hour ago from just south of Auckland.

Last night I stayed with a truck driver named Israel, hauling timber up to Auckland. He's our age and has been driving for three years. He makes about $60,000 NZ a year, which is quite a bit. He's bought a house already and spent ten weeks in Southeast Asia recently. Over the three-hour drive from Rotorua to Auckland, Israel and I had some very interesting conversation. Towards the end, he asked me if I'd like to stay at his father's house with him. Oh, really?! I said I would, as I was tired and had no desire to stay in Auckland. We went out to the local pub where a regular named Pedro talked my ear off for quite a while. At least he bought me a Tui (a beer here). Pedro, an American citizen, was born in Guam and was in the military. He was in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and Iraq during the first Gulf War. Ex-SIS. Worked with the CIA and the British Secret Service. He was a jumper--did 500 foot drops into terrorist areas, painted the SCUDs with a laser, then cleared out when the F16s shot their missles. Of course 100% bullshit. But I entertained him as he was quite knowledgable on these topics (even if he wasn't actually a counterinsurgency specialist). This, as you may imagine, just went on, and on, and on, and on... Nice guy really though.

The night before I was in Rotorua, known for its high level of geothermal activity--the whole place has a faint smell of sulphur from the thermal pools that seem to be everywhere. I camped out in Government Gardens right on the lake. Lying under the stars, looking out over the moonlit lake to my right and the town of Rotorua to my left, its lights illuminating the numerous steam clouds drifting upwards, was absolutely magical. Black swans floated by peacefully.

The day before I took the ferry across the Cook Strait from Picton to Wellington. I was to take the 5:45 a.m. ferry, but I overslept and arrived at the terminal in the pre-dawn darkness to see the huge ship slowly drift away. The 10 o'clock sail got me to Wellington, but it was raining hard when I arrived. Angry about missing the first ferry, I was suddenly uncertain about what I should do, wondering if anyone would pick me up in this rain (I'd get their car soaked). I started to get depressed, then I realized that I'm in my own movie, and rain isn't going to fucking get me down. So then I'm walking backwards on the side of the road, pack weighed down with water, getting drenched through my raingear, and I still manage to conjure my "hitching smile" and not be faking it. This is New Zealand. Fuck yeah.

Before Picton was Greymouth (had an intersting hitch between the two) where I stayed with these nice people who homeschool their kids and live a life a bit seperated from society. I had taken the four-hour TranzAlpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth which is rated in the top ten most scenic train rides in the world. I can believe it.

Sunny Christchurch, on the Canterbury plains, was nice, but I didn't stay more than a night. The day before was Te Anau, where I did the 3-day Kepler Track. This hike was absolutely incredible. Not too hard, but on one day I climbed 1500 meters, or about 4500 feet, up switchbacks. I don't like switchbacks. Overall the track is about 60 kilometers.

So, let's see. Before that was Queenstown, where I partied until 10 am, then had a two day hangover, then before that was Wanaka, where I laid on the beach and worked on my tan (Lizzy) and before that was Christchurch.

Now, my last post (minus the truck driver one) was from Christchurch. I didn't mention that I Couchsurfed with a middle-aged hippie named Dave. I now wish that I had a better hold on the english language, because his character is worthy of an equally colorful description.

Proud Lord of the Rings Extra

His house is filled with camels. Camel figurines, camel tapestries, camel carpets, photographs of camels. From my seat on one of the living room couches I counted seventy-six of 'em. The house is an old den, almost. It's filled with stuff, but not junk. It's very indicative of Dave's personality. NORML pamphlets in the bathroom. He keeps bees. You'll find Dave's CS profile here.

I have been all around this beautiful country by thumb only. Hitching is so easy here. Average time on the side of the road is about 10-15 minutes. And that's average. Plenty of times I've been picked up within a minute of being dropped off. This is fairly indicative of the personality of Kiwis in general. As a whole, they are the most generous people I've encountered, Paheka, Maori, and Asian alike. For me, good things have been occuring with such regularity that it feels like a streak of good luck, you know? But it's not, it's just the good of the people and the spectacular landscape that makes life so nice. There's only 4 and a half million here, which means the land is largely unspoiled.

Well, that's all for now. What is everyone doing? Believe it or not, I'm still connected to you guys. I miss you all. Why not shoot me an e-mail?