Hello Everyone! I am View image
a full country behind, so I have some serious catching up to do. I haven’t really held up with my promise of “updating”. I am sorry for this. I could give you a 1000 reasons why I haven’t had the time to update, but in the end they’re all excuses...............

I am going to try harder this time. I know that from your emails that most of you are still interested in what I am doing. It’s good to know that people still care and haven’t forgotten about me. Even you Arie!! So let’s begin.
To close out Australia, I added some more photos of the View image
“Great Ocean Road”. You may see these photos in the section labeled “Photos” click on “Great Ocean Road”. I really don’t have too much to say about this area because the photos speak for themselves.
Now on to New Zealand!!
After leaving Australia where the atmosphere always had something to do with either partying or beach, I flew to Christchurch. Christchurch is located on the south island of New Zealand. Here the atmosphere is totally different. In Australia, most activities incorporated in one way or another the sun, beach and the bars. In New Zealand the vibe was different. Here everybody did activities involving the mountains, the rivers and the pubsView image
.
Christchurch was the perfect place for me to begin since an old friend of mine Sara from Port Charlotte, Florida lived here. After some hefty consideration on what to do and where to go, I decided to book a ticket upon “The Kiwi Experience” busView image
. This was a bus service for backpackers that takes you to all these towns and organizes your accommodations and activities. I am not normally the “organized bus trip” kind of guy, but seeing that I was alone, this was the perfect opportunity for me to meet other travelers. I was lucky; I had great bus View image
loaded with some really fantastic people as you soon will read. Oh yeah, I'll tell you later why we are all dress-up in garbage bags later, so don't ask.
Let me first tell you about our bus driver. His name was “Buzz” View image
and he was a Maori descendent. For those who do not already know, the Maori people View image
were the original people of New Zealand. They are like the Aborigines from Australia or the Indians from North America. The only difference between the Maori people and the other two groups is that the Maoris didn’t allow the Europeans colonize them. They allowed the Europeans to live among them as equals. Thus, many of the Maori cultures and traditions are still evident all through out New Zealand today. Getting back to Buzz, the best way I could accurately describe him is a cross between a 350 Lbs. Polynesian linebacker and the bus driver from the SimpsonsView image
. Typical Buzz phrases would include “Its all good, Cuz!” “No worries, Cuz” “Good on ya, Cuz” and “When’s the next bong hit, Cuz”. He’s just a happy go lucky kind of guy, happy to be a bus driver for Kiwi. I hit it off with Buzz right away because he too was also a trout fisherman. It worked out great for both of us, because I didn’t know where to fish, and he never really had anyone to fish with! After being picked up, our bus headed north to our first destination…..KiaKoura the whale watching capital of New Zealand!