The Generosity of Kiwis and Travellers

I'm hurtling down the road at 130 kilometers per hour in the backseat of a tiny beat-up Honda with two hyper, completely over-the-top 17-year-old girls, when one asks, "Do you like m______?"

"Of course," I replied. Shortly thereafter we were parked at the end of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, giggling.

That occurred on just one of a string of unreal rides South I had today, hitchiking down the Motorway to Taupo.

This morning I left Oaklands Lodge, a backpackers' hostel in Mt. Eden, a suburb of Auckland. (There, I met Kara's friends/employees of said hostel, who plied me with music and space). I hiked to Rt 1 and set up shop in front of the Southbound on-ramp. I displayed a relatively puny sign reading "Hamilton/South" for a while, until an older man came over to tell me about a better spot up the road. I took his advice, but still failed to attract a kind soul. Fifteen minutes later the man returned with a large piece of cardboard. On it he had taped two 8 1/2 by 11 sheets of paper. Somewhere he had printed out a sign that said "HAMILTON PLEASE." Excellent. With t he much improved (not to mention more polite) sign, I had a ride within minutes. How's that for famous Kiwi hospitality?

Six rides later I had been given a beer, two cigarettes, and a bourbon & cola. Ifuckinglovethisplace.

After watching the second-most beautiful sunset of my life over the mountains surrounding Lake Taupo (the best was in the Caribbean), I walked down to the hostel kitchen to to re-heat some macaroni & cheese and toast some bread. The first thing anyone said to me was, "Want some free food?" Salad, hamburger, garlic bread, beer... People, I'm in paradise. I'm going skydiving tomorrow.

(I wrote this last night, typed it this morning).

It's about 2 p.m in San Francisco

I've completed the first leg of my voyage. The flight from Boston wasn't bad. United Airlines flight 173 left the runway right on time: 8:20 a.m. I sat next to a older white man, a retiree with his wife who owned a cash register company and now has houses in New Hampshire, Montana, and Hawaii (where they were headed). He was missing most of his index and middle fingers of his right hand. He was chatty, which was good for the most part. He had an annoying habit of interrupting my reading (but not my sleep, thank God). Speaking of God, he kept mentioning his Church in passing, so I wasn't surprised when he slipped me a pamphlet as we were landing on the West Coast. He had been to New Zealand 15 years ago, so I certainly enjoyed getting his opinion on the country that I will be in 18 1/2 hours.
The past few days have been quite hectic for me; I've been packing furiously and trying to say bye to some people I haven't seen in 6 1/2 years. Old grade school friends. Packing for a trip like mine is much more difficult than a vacation or pretty much any other travel experience. I needed to pack enough to be completely self-sufficient for a month- I needed to satisfy food requirements (stove, pots), sleep (sleeping bag, ThermaRest, bivvy sack, rain fly), water (CamelBack, Nalgene, iodine tablets for water purification)...etc. And it all had to fit into a 4000 cubic inch internal-frame pack; the weight had to be as low as possible. Quite a challenge...
People are waiting to use this kiosk. Best of luck to all in your travels, studies, and adventures. Please do keep in touch. Love, Sean