hey doods...

im in new zealand now, leaving auckland today and heading up north to the bay of islands. i found two british guys who needed more people along, and we're renting a car and doing the whole of the north island together..then they'll drop me off and ill catch a ferry over to the south island. they both have a year here, and i have 5 weeks,so my itinerary is a little more rushed than theirs...but it'll work out.

new zealand is so comfortable at the moment, and definately a big change from what im used to with being in the south pacific for so long. All that humidity and heat with no ac, im a pro now! it's pretty comfortable here in the 70's..and im sure by the time i get to the south island it'll be in the 50's and 60's..talk about awesome..

so i don't have much news yet....i've gone out a couple times here already and i must say the lounges and such remind me a lot of new york city..so there are times i feel as if im back in the U.S. only to hear someone speak and realize i aint anywhere there..

it's funny how people call me out on my accent here...cause it's not like you think you're EVER the one with the accent..you know?

it definately is a small ass world..i've met a woman in fiji who lives about 20 minutes from my parents house, a guy who's mom was more than likely a stewardess with mom in ireland, and another girl who knows my aunt and uncle in ireland...how freaking wierd is that.. and to make things even better...i have met so many replicas of all of you....by that i mean so many of your look alikes.. so it's like you're all with me anyhow.

i've also had some pretty bizarre deja vu's of deja vu's which OBVIOUSLY can't be real since i've never been to these places..but for real it's just awesome..

that's all for now..take care!

you know what new zealand is like? imagine some jerk deciding to create the earth.. he throws in eye of newt and some other junk..and then decides..man some of this stuff is too good to just waste on that dumbass planet, im going to keep some for myself..so he sneakily puts some in his little purse (YEAH HIS PURSE), and is SO proud of his greediness. but hey, karma stabbed that badboy in the back by allowing his little pouch 'o goodness to slip out of his holy pockets...and this little bag filled of wonders falls within the latitudes and longitudes of where new zealand now lies...yeah you heard me right, and if you didn't, seriously go hang out with god or something.

but it is just beautiful..palm trees next to pines, bays that are so crystal blue, with beautiful jagged rocks out of the ocean, blue skies, PERFECT temperatures, gorgeous sunsets...you get the point...but this isn't even half of it..its about the experiences too...

FOR INSTANCE

I went up the whole north of the island to Cape Reinga where i saw where the Tasman sea (the ocean between NZ and Aus) meets the pacific..talk about waves!! you could see the exact point where the oceans met..because the waves, the currents, the ocean colors, it was just so beautiful..

Then i made my way to the Bay of Islands. This consists of a bunch of beautiful little towns and islands along the NE coast of new zealand.

after visiting about 3 bays, we settled on the third one of Paihia. Paihia at first, didn't impress me, but it slowly won me over. Due to the activities, the place i stayed, and the people i met. First off, i stayed at this place called the Mousetrap. It was this little backpackers that was built by a sea captain who designed this building like a ship..there were tons of little hallways, little nooks and crannies, and the kitchens and such were designed like a ship...I quickly became friends with the people who worked there so it was just fun to hang out there.

I decided to do this overnight cruise thing. It was on a boat called "The Rock" and it was a full 24 hour cruise for a really cheap price..they had SO many activities listed i figured you only picked one or two..but no they meant you did it all..so in 24 hours i did the following

shot guns
went fishing
went night kayaking
went night swimming
snorkeled
went diving for mussels (NO I DID NOT EAT THAT CRAP)
entertained the whole boat with a singing/guitar session
fought with a drunk english dood
made friends with an israeli girl who helped me fight the english guy
went on a hike
hung around
the end

but night kayaking is so amazing. we did it in water where there was phosphorensce..so when you move the whole water glows around you. its like magic..so when we swam in the dark, we all made sure to splash around so we could make lots of sparkleeeees

by the way..the next night...mr. rude englishman apologized to me for being a jerk..asked me to forgive him..i did..and he gets drunk again and two hours later came looking for another fight....well we all know who ate shit that night, and it wasn't the irish muslim..so yeah!

so my last day in paihia, i was lounging around the hostel, really kinda bored and reading a REALLY crappy book, when this guy just bursts into the living room and goes "hey you wanna go sailing?" now who would pass that up?

so i went sailing, and at the captains order, with a little 4:20 love too (provided by el capitan), i sailed a damn sailboat. It was the second oldest sailboat in all of NZ, about 118 years old. I coudln't believe i was sailing it, and that he was making me sail it. hahahahah ME! but it was just really cool, and it was around sunset, so even better. im a captain. IM SAILING!

round two: so..skydiving huh? yeah so what..freaking amazing..but i have to say..im a bit disturbed how not scared i was..how non-existant the adrenaline rush was..im wondering if im immune now...i hope not..but it was so freaking cool....i waited to get nervous..i waited in the car on the way there, i waited while i was suiting up, i waited while the plane took off, while the instructor hung me out of the plane door, and when we pushed off, and not once did i get nervous..it just felt totally natural like i had done it about 4651.2 times before...it was seriously just really cool (phil, if you don't skydive by the time i get back, ill seriously divorce you).

so sky diving wasn't enough...or not enough for tuesday night..so i decide to make wednesday more interesting..and it all started about 6 am in the morning.

imagine this..mark summers..that freak from double dare says to you

mark: "hey you, double dare or take the physical challenge"
me: "oh mark! why not both..in fact..why not make it a torture test?"
mark: "sure your jerk"
me: "hell yeah you OCD freak! why don't you go fix your rugs!"

so what does this all mean? it means old mark and his buddy robyn and that old asshole harvey that did the announcing set me up with a 17 km hike through the tongariro crossing...this HUGE ass three peak volcano/mountain thing.

i must have lost like 20 lbs...2 lbs of fat and 18 pounds of sanity!
it was amazing though..honestly i love the challenge and id do it again in a heartbeat!!

so i've been in new zealand exactly 2 weeks now and im in love with it. I only have 3 weeks left here which bums me out, but the south island is supposed to be like 524354.2 times more amazing than the north island anyhow! i can only imagine what ill get to do there. i definately plan on doing bungee jumping, ice climbing, and whale watching..but im sure ill end up doing A LOT more.

allright all, im outtie...today was the day i did that hike, so i need to go pack and make my sign that says "wellington" cause tomorrow, im hitching it southward!